Love Hina: Flight of the Hornet
by Doctor-T
Summary: One scorching mid-summer's day, an unusual visitor wanders into the Hinata Apartments, to find the goings on inside even more hot and heavy than he could have ever imagined - and more dangerous. Curious? Read on!
1. Chapter 1

_Heyo! This is a five-chapter collaboration between Major Mike Powell III and yours truly. He came up with the idea and sent me his notes, so I took a break from my other stories for long enough to exercise my imagination and write this somewhat unusual tale._

_Read on!_

-:-:-:-:-:-

**LOVE HINA: FLIGHT OF THE HORNET  
**_**CHAPTER ONE**_

By Doctor-T and Major Mike Powell III

-:-:-:-:-:-

It was a hot summer afternoon in Kanagawa Prefecture. Situated just across the lazily flowing Hinata River from Hinata City, the sleepy town of Hinata Hot Springs basked languidly in the bright light cast benevolently down by the radiant golden sun. Cicadas chirped amongst the greenery surrounding the old wood, stone and tile-built town, and a warm, gentle breeze wafted unenergetically through the rustic landscape as if it were loath to disturb the peaceful scene of suburban tranquility with unseemly haste.

Because of the late August heat, few people seemed to be out and about at that particular time of the day. Except for the occasional slowly moving car, and a strolling pedestrian or two in the shopping area, the cobblestoned streets of the ancient municipality seemed to be almost completely deserted.

However, if the townsfolk were conspicuous by their absence, one other creature currently visiting their town was very conspicuous, in both its size and the distinctive dull, low-pitched sound of its flight. Just above the footpath that ran along the eastern base of the grassy plateau that backed the old township of Hinata Hot Springs, a rather large and dangerous insect was on the move. This particularly imposing specimen of the Asian giant hornet, _Vespa mandarinia,_ was at that very moment droning its winding way parallel to the asphalt-sealed two-lane road, towards where a certain Tea Shop was located right next to a currently deserted trolley bus stop.

As our story revolves around this particular insect, it is worth our while to take a closer look at our protagonist. A _very careful_ closer look.

The Asian giant hornet,_ Vespa mandarinia,_ is a native of Eastern Asia. Over its entire range, it is most common in the mountainous areas of Japan. Here, it is known as the Japanese hornet or _suzumebachi, _which translates into 'sparrow bee', due to its size and coloration.

The world's largest hornet, _Vespa mandarinia_ has a body length of approximately 50 mm, and a wingspan of about 76 mm. The stinger of this particularly nasty wasp is about 6mm in length, and, being barbless, allows the hornet to sting its victims repeatedly. Even worse, the venom ejected by this formidable weapon contains at least eight distinct chemicals, including Acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that stimulates the pain nerve fibers of its stung victims, magnifying the agony. Also present is a neurotoxin called mandaratoxin, which, with a sufficient dose, can be lethal even to humans.

This particular individual hornet possessed a name of his own, too. As did all hornets. However, his name in Hornetese, Zzzthpthipth, is totally unpronounceable by humans. Spoken correctly by another hornet, the name 'Zzzthpthipth' sounded like a cross between a loud snore and a raspberry, but compressed down into a half-second ultrasonic buzz. Purely to satisfy the curiosity of all you multitudes of readers whom are fluent in Turtlese, 'Zzzthpthipth' translates into that common and widely used language as 'Myuh'. In Japanese, the nearest two translations for this name were either, 'Bold Investigator of Strange Smells', or 'Kyle', depending on which syllable you stressed.

Unfortunately, 'myuh' also has multiple other meanings in Turtlese (depending on which syllable you stressed) – of which, _'yay, an onsen'_, _'Waiter, there's a fly in my soup – can I have another?'_ and _'watch out, Keitaro, Naru's about to hand you your head!' -_ are but a mere smattering of them. And, as, 'Bold Investigator of Strange Smells' is too cumbersome (not to mention perverted), we will call our protagonist, Kyle, Kyle the Hornet.

Now, Zzzthpthipth – whoops, I mean, 'Kyle', had been given the day off from his hidden nest. Yep, that's right. Hornets have days off. A rare occurrence, but it happens.

As to how this unusual state of affairs came about, he and a handful of other scout hornets had found a dead pigeon lying not too far from their nest. Their Queen had praised them for their discovery and given them the day off after they had eaten their share of the dead bird – which wasn't much, considering that the pigeon was at least twenty times their size.

Right now, Kyle was just buzzing lazily along, having nothing better to do that afternoon. As hornets don't usually get time off from work, he was unsure exactly what to do with this totally unprecedented free time. So, to help him make up his mind, he was doing the hornet equivalent of taking a walk to clear his head.

Looking up from his reverie as a wood and glass wall loomed up in his flight path, the preoccupied wasp noticed to his horror that he was precariously close to the terrifying 'den of doom', a location to be avoided at all costs. Doing a ninety-degree turn in mid-air, the now agitated hornet hurriedly headed up the nearby flight of stone steps, bypassing the Danger Zone, where many of Kyle's brothers had met their demise by a rather swift moving and unerringly accurate paper fan.

Kyle the hornet had lost many friends at the hands of the Apron-Wearing Destroyer, whom, unfortunately, had returned to that locality after an absence of some years. And he had no wish to join his squashed comrades in 'the land of milk and honey and decomposing meat'.

Well, actually he did, but not by _that_ particular means of arrival. Arriving in the afterlife in the shape of a green starfish-shaped splatter-effect was definitely _not_ on his top-ten list of things to do.

Once safely out of harms reach, Kyle flew up the seemingly never-ending series of stone steps before finally landing, all senses alert, on the cobblestoned plaza at its summit.

This territory wasn't totally unknown to the hive, either, but – like the 'den of doom' - it was considered by all within the chewed-bark paper walls of their home to be still pretty damn dangerous to approach.

Situated at the far side of the plaza, facing out over Sagami Bay, was a sprawling old building – a building with a sinister reputation amongst the hornet community. Some of Kyle's co-workers had entered this particular towering wood-and-stone structure seeking food for the hive and had never returned. As to whether they were dead or alive, it was a mystery to all.

Personally, Kyle suspected 'dead'. Hence the hesitant hornet's quite understandable reluctance to move any closer to the ominous edifice.

Suddenly, the wary Kyle's antennas twitched, as they perceived a particular scent wafting out of the massive, multi-storied apartment block. A faint, tangy scent that Kyle the hornet had never picked up before.

The insect immediately perceived that the tantalizing odor was definitely coming from somewhere high up in the building in front of him.

He tilted his head this way and that, deciding on what to do next.

For one, Kyle was tempted to try to find out what that intriguing smell was. It did remind him of fresh squid. _Tasty_. But...to do that would mean having to actually enter the foreboding wood and stone mountain towering above him and face whatever horrors it contained.

Ah, what to do...what to do...decisions, decisions.

...

_Damn it!_ He finally exclaimed. Or the insect equivalent, thereof.

In the end, curiosity had won out over precaution.

At times like this, Kyle wished that his hornet name didn't begin with the prefix, 'Bold'.

Letting his nose (well, sense of smell) guide him, Kyle launched his segmented body back into the hot air, and spiraled upwards, heading for the second floor of the Hinata Apartments, where he could see a dozen open windows. (Actually there was only one open window, but being a hornet, he has compound eyes).

Instead of flying straight through the gap and into the building, Kyle first alighted on the wooden windowsill, from whence he subjected the silent hallway beyond to a long and searching scrutiny. Only once he was sure that there was no immediate danger lurking in his vicinity did he then venture into the hazardous territory inside.

Backtracking the scent trail, the giant hornet droned his way carefully along the wooden hallway, all senses on high alert, until he reached a tightly closed, wood and rice paper door.

Kyle knew that hidden behind this door was the source of the odor he was seeking. Right here in Room 204. Unfortunately, he could also clearly hear two voices coming from within. Human voices, no less. The same species as the Apron-Wearing Destroyer - his only natural enemies.

Resisting his instinctive urge to flee back to the safety of the great outdoors with an effort, Kyle instead landed on the polished hardwood floor. Then he began his fact-finding mission by listening in on the strange and usually dangerous creatures hidden within the chamber behind the door. They were making strange noises and speaking in their very slow and guttural language. Even though Kyle couldn't understand a single word being spoken, one voice sounded like it belonged to a human female, the other a human male.

After listening for several minutes to the deep-pitched babble, Kyle made his move. Having heard nothing apart from the voices to indicate any threat to his well-being, the hornet decided that fortune favored the brave. Besides, with his quarter-inch stinger, he was pretty well armed, all things considering. So he squeezed his segmented orange and black body through the crack between the rice-paper door and the floor and easily crawled into the room – to immediately espy two dozen, no, _two_ near-nude human figures, clad only in their underwear, sitting on an unrolled futon in the center of the wooden floor, making out.

One of the near nude figures was obviously a human male, although not a very imposing specimen of one. The other was a longhaired, well-endowed girl, her twin hair antennae bobbing up and down as she laughed at something the other creature had just said.

And she _wasn't_ the girl that this particular human male had married only three short months ago, either.

Naru Narusegawa – now Naru Urashima – was nowhere in sight.

This was Mutsumi Otohime.

-:-:-:-:-:-

As to how this eye-opening state of affairs had come about, we must now backtrack several months, to just after the wedding of one Keitaro Urashima and one Naru Narusegawa.

Ever since the comical conclusion of their western-style marriage - when the hapless Keitaro had accidentally stood on the hem of Naru's wedding dress just as she was stepping up into Seta's decked out van, stripping the blushing bride to her underwear right there in front of their family and friends – things hadn't quite been right between Keitaro and Naru.

And, in what would months later prove to be the final straw that broke the camel's back, in their hurry to get away from the gales of laughter from their kith and kin after Keitaro's embarrassing gaffe, both angry Bride and just now well-beaten-up Groom had completely forgotten to lodge their Registration of Marriage Form at the Hinata City government office before departing post-haste on their now-not-to-be very enjoyable honeymoon.

Even though neither realized it at the time, because of this oversight, Keitaro and Naru were now no more legally married than they had been before the ceremony had even happened. For the only way to marry legally in Japan is to register the marriage at a municipal government office. This is Japanese Law. The civil procedure is not, and cannot, be part of a religious wedding ceremony, because since the end of World War II, religion and state have been separated.

So, the upshot of the newlyweds' failure to register their nuptials was that their wedding had been invalid from the date it had happened. And by the time that Keitaro realized this – several months later - their Registration of Marriage Form had somehow become lost, meaning that if they really still wished to legally become man and wife, they would have to go though the whole lengthy process of getting another licence and then remarrying once again.

Upon being told of their more than merely shocking situation by her sweating no-longer-husband, the suddenly unmarried Naru hadn't just seen red - she had seen the full spectrum of that color, from infrared to orange. All poor Keitaro had then seen was her fist expanding into his face, followed by not just stars, but a miniature scale exploding galaxy. The hapless young bachelor went at a forty-five degree angle though the wall behind him like it didn't even exist, and then the one behind that, as well. Without any sign of his velocity slowing down whatsoever, Keitaro spiraled off into the sky in a parabolic arc that finally deposited him, in a splashdown crater of meteoric proportions, a full two kilometers away from his place of residence.

From the dire physical punishment he had received over the years - not only from Naru and Motoko, but also from accidents that would have been fatal to anyone else - Keitaro already harbored the sneaking suspicion that he was somehow an immortal. But even if he truly couldn't die, he had also discovered that he wasn't totally invulnerable to harm. And now, as the battered and bruised young man crawled woozily out of the crater with his jaw broken in two places by Naru's punch, he sure _wished_ that he were dead – but, judging by the pain he was now suffering, the peace of the grave was once again denied him.

And his current mental state certainly wasn't helped by the fact that the last words he had heard from the outraged Naru was her screaming out after him, _"You asshole! We're through!"_

He didn't know for absolute sure if the enraged Naru had really meant those cruel words to him or not. But this time, Keitaro took them to heart.

For it was right then and there, as he collapsed face downwards on the dirt-splattered grass, Keitaro realized that he and Naru really _were_ through.

After what had just happened, it was blatantly obvious that Naru really _didn't_ love him any more. Her frightfully violent and unforgiving reaction to their newfound unwedded situation in automatically blaming him for forgetting to file their Registration of Marriage Form, when _she_ was actually the one who had promised to do it for him after their wedding, was ample proof of that.

It wasn't just her temper that was short – her memory was, also.

In the seconds before he passed out into merciful unconsciousness on the edge of the impact crater, Keitaro Urashima finally and wearily admitted to himself the real truth of his situation - he just didn't love Naru any more, now, either.

Truth to tell, their marriage had been a sham, as had their supposed true and everlasting love for each other. All that this latest in a long line of painful incidents had done was confirm beyond all doubt that unpleasant fact to him. At long last Keitaro gave up on his dream. He accepted that any previous feelings of warmth and affection that he and Naru once may have had for each other were dead, and had been for some time now.

And so, as of right now, his rocky, long time relationship with the wildly beautiful, but cruel and ill-tempered girl who had once held his heart was now well and truly over – by _mutual_ consent.

-:-:-:-:-:-

_"No, Keitaro, I have a headache."_

"_Get away from me, you idiot! Can't you see that I have to study?"_

"_So that's the only reason you married me? Just to hit 4__th__ base with me? Go take a cold shower, you sex-starved pervert!"_

"_Sorry, I've got to wash my hair. Maybe tomorrow, if you don't do anything to break the mood. Okay?"_

"_What? Is that all you ever think about? I just aren't ready for that type of carry on, okay? So stop bugging me about it!"_

Over and over again, Naru's evasions and excuses for avoiding even the slightest bit of intimacy with him kept rolling like a never-ending newsreel through the injured Keitaro's unconsciously dreaming mind as he lay there senseless in the dirt.

It was now almost exactly three months since their supposed wedding. And in all of that elapsed time, Keitaro and Naru's relationship had gone nowhere positive. In fact, if anything, it had been going downhill at an exponential rate of knots.

Intimate, the pair was not. The only time they'd even so much as kissed in anything vaguely resembling a passionate manner was immediately after Noriyasu Seta had pronounced them man and wife, just before Keitaro's unfortunate wedding dress _faux pas_. Ever since then, Naru had been hedging and stalling, either unwilling or afraid to deepen their relationship into something more meaningful.

And there had been a LOT of punches. Even more than before. The increasingly moody and irascible Naru now seemed to deliberately set out to find fault with everything he said or did. Despite his mounting bruise count and all of the other evidence to the contrary; Keitaro had been grimly hanging on to his love for his ill-tempered wife, hoping against hope that Naru would eventually change. Not even all of the warnings that his younger sister Kanako and Aunt Haruka had been giving the increasingly sore and frustrated new husband had swayed him from this single-minded belief in Naru's innate goodness – until right now, that was.

He now knew that his relatives had been right about Naru all along.

Keitaro Urashima the fool had paid a terrible price for his misplaced loyalty and stubborn refusal to accept the truth of his loveless situation with the beautiful psychopath he thought he would spend the rest of his life with in wedded bliss.

But no more. The realization that he and Naru weren't in fact legally married meant he didn't even need to go through the hassle of getting a divorce. And, because of his newfound bachelor status, not only could he leave her as of right now and move on with his life, he could do so with an absolutely clear conscience.

-:-:-:-:-:-

When Keitaro finally came to, night had fallen. Raising his dirt-streaked, bruised face up from the dewy grass, the still partially dazed ex-husband saw, without much surprise, that no-one had come to his aid, least of all, Naru. He was alone in a dark, tree-fringed field, far from the lights marking the outskirts of Hinata Hot Springs.

Then the realization of his newfound liberation burst back into Keitaro's befuddled mind, sweeping away all other considerations.

_I'm free. Oh, god, at long last – I'm free of her. And…I actually feel happy about it…!_

The injured student then sat up, his shaken mind now awhirl with conflicting thoughts of hope for a better future, a touch of sadness at the discovery that his marriage had been a sham, relief at his newfound freedom, and undeniable regret at what could have been, had Naru only loved him as much as he had loved her.

_Had_ loved her…

_I did love you, Naru. I really, really did. And I fulfilled my promise to you; we finally got into Toudai together. Mutsumi, too. We really, really made it!_

_But anything more than that between us…it was only a dream. I see now that you and I were never meant to be. And finding out now that we were never legally married just proves it to me._

_We did have some good times together – well, a few, anyway – and I dared to hope. But now we've both woken up, and my dream is over._

_Goodbye Naru. Hello, the rest of my life._

Then Keitaro gingerly touched his throbbing jaw, and winced at the sensation. Despite the dull pain, he could feel that the double break had already started to knit back together. In a day or so, his shattered jaw would be back to its normal, undamaged self. This extraordinarily fast healing factor he possessed was something else to be grateful about, at least.

Letting out a resigned sigh, Keitaro made it back to his somewhat unsteady feet. Dusting himself off as best he was able, the newly unmarried _Toudai_ graduate started off on his long walk back towards the distant lights of the town and home.

Keitaro Urashima had a new and better future to plan. One that _didn't_ include his bad tempered, uncaring ex.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Back at the light-spangled Hinata Apartments, one Naru Urashima – now, after that morning's life altering bombshell, Naru Narusegawa once again – was getting worried. Keitaro still hadn't arrived back at their sprawling home on the hill, and despite her previous anger at him, she couldn't help feeling genuine concern at his prolonged absence.

_I hit Keitaro so hard. But he deserved it…didn't he?_ Naru queried herself as she apprehensively paced back and forth in their strangely empty feeling room on the second story of the apartments._ I mean, telling me that he hadn't filed our marriage papers and now that he had lost them – what an idiot! Hmph! Some husband he turned out to be!_

_No, that's right – because of his forgetfulness, we were never really officially married, were we? So he never really _was_ my husband in the first place._

_Well - well, good! I'm better off without him…aren't I…?_

_Aren't I…?_

…

Coming to a halt, the restless young woman stared for what felt like the hundredth time out the window into the darkness of the night, down towards the cobblestoned plaza below her. Naru's hopeful eyes strained to catch a glimpse of her returning ex-partner, but once again she was to be disappointed. Nothing stirred in the twin pools of yellow light cast by the lamps at the top of the stone staircase, except for the glowing dots of a few spiraling moths.

At her lack of success in spotting her errant ex, Naru clenched her fists, and a few involuntary tears appeared in the corners of her eyes.

_Oh, that tardy idiot. I wonder where he could be? Keitaro…_

-:-:-:-:-:-

Keitaro had honestly intended to make his way directly back to his lofty old home on the hill. But, for some yet unfathomable reason, his turbulent subconscious caused him to make a slight detour from his planned route. Before Keitaro could fully realize what he was doing, he found his feet carrying him in a slow limp along the shadowy, gas lamp lit street on which Mutsumi Otohime's apartment block was situated.

Once he had reached his unplanned destination, Keitaro hesitated at the foot of the outside staircase, a dark look in his eyes. He knew now why he had gone there, but could he really go through with what he wanted to say to the unsuspecting turtle girl. But then a fresh surge of resentment at his previous treatment made up his mind for him in no uncertain fashion. Keitaro steeled himself, set his mouth in a grim, resolute line, adjusted his cracked glasses, and then limped up the flight of steps and along the dark corridor to Mutsumi's doorway.

Taking a deep breath, Keitaro closed his eyes and counted to ten, then rapped loudly on the wooden door with his knuckles.

"Mutsumi! Open up!" he called out in a bleak tone, an undercurrent of anger in his voice. "We need to talk!"

Ten seconds passed, and Keitaro was beginning to think that maybe Mutsumi had already gone to bed and so hadn't heard his knocking. As his watch had been broken by the impact of his fall, the injured young man hadn't a clue as to just what time of night it might now be. It could be already after midnight, for all he knew. But then the faint glow of a light switching on shone out through the hairline crack beneath the solid wooden door, casting a faint pool of half-light across the hallway at his still weak and unsteady feet.

"Hello?" Mutsumi's uncertain voice came faintly to Keitaro's straining ears. "Who's there?"

"It's me, Keitaro," he reassured her through gritted teeth. "Open the door, I've got something to say to you!"

"Kei-kun? Oh my goodness! Hold on a moment…"

A second or two later, the front door swung inwards, and the _kimono_-clad silhouette of Mutsumi Otohime appeared, backlit in the doorway by the bright light streaming out of her room.

"Kei-kun!" Mutsumi exclaimed in delighted surprise, a warm smile of greeting on her beaming face. "Welcome! But what are you doing here at this time of the night?"

"I'll give you three guesses," the shadowy shape of Keitaro growled bitterly, staring at the young woman with a most disconcerting look of betrayal in his normally cheery eyes. "Can I come in?"

"Please, yes," Mutsumi answered, her kind heart sinking as she took note of his grim expression, stepping back a couple of paces to let her childhood friend enter her abode. It was only then, as Keitaro stumbled into her well-lit room, that the now worried young woman noticed the disheveled, dirt streaked appearance of her surprise visitor.

"Oh, Kei-kun, you're all bruised and dirty! What happened to you?"

Keitaro's expression changed and he gave a short, mirthless laugh. "What happened? Naru happened, of course!"

"Naru-san hit you again?" Mutsumi wailed, hands flying to her mouth as her worst fears were confirmed. "But why?"

"Because I just found out today that my marriage to her isn't legal. As to the reason why, we both forgot to file our Registration of Marriage Form after our wedding," Keitaro explained in a pained, gritty tone because of his healing jaw, unconsciously clenching his fists, simmering anger in his eyes at the memory of this morning's events. "Naru was _not_ impressed when I told her. She lost it completely, and booked me on an instant, one-way flight to the upper atmosphere with her right fist. I splashed down about a kilometer and a bit from your apartment, in a field. Just look for the brand new crater on the outskirts of town for the exact location, if you want to measure how far it is back to the Hinata Apartments, and confirm her new punching-me-for-distance record."

"Oh, my! I wouldn't do that, Kei-kun! But…you're telling me that, despite your big wedding and honeymoon, you and Naru-san _aren't_ really married after all?" Mutsumi whispered in huge-eyed disbelief, her heart thumping not only with anxiety for him and Naru, but with one other, far more important personal emotion, as well.

_Newfound hope._

Keitaro gave another bitter laugh. "Afraid so. No filed form at the municipal office, no legal marriage. So I'm still single, and so is she!"

"But can't you just take your marriage form in to the registry office tomorrow morning?" Mutsumi pointed out to Keitaro, still thinking that he was upset and acting strangely because he was afraid of losing Naru all over again, this time for good. "Once it's safely on record, Naru will forgive you, and you'll both go back to being one happy couple again-"

"I can't file it because we've lost it! And even if the form did show up again, the deadline for filing it was last week," Keitaro burst out, his face black with sudden anger. "It's expired now, so it's totally useless! But even if I knew where that damn marriage form was and it was still valid, I wouldn't hand it in now! Not now – not ever!"

"_Wh-what? Why?"_

"Because it turned out that Naru's so-called 'love' for me was nothing but a lie," the shaking young man declared, his eyes blazing with anguish and rage. "And because I was deluded enough to believe that she did love me, and that she and I were fated to be together, I suffered her physical and mental abuse for years, and for what? _Absolutely nothing!"_

"Kei-kun, no! Naru-san _does_ love you, I'm sure of it," the now pale-faced Mutsumi protested, instinctively trying to save the obviously crumbling short-term marriage of her two best friends. "I know that you and Naru-san can work this out, and-!"

"No, we can't! Naru told me that we're through! And you know what – she's absolutely right! I don't want her back again, now, either!"

"Oh, my goodness! So you two really _have_ split up for good?" the Okinawan beauty gasped, still unable to believe what she was hearing just yet. "And – you _don't_ want to marry each other again, Kei-kun? Are you sure-?"

"Yes! And as for you, Mutsumi, I have just one question. Why in the hell did you keep pushing Naru and I together when you knew perfectly well what she was like towards me?" Keitaro shouted, the expression on his face terrible to behold as he abruptly turned his wrath onto her. "And you're _still_ trying to do it, even now! I thought you were in love with me, too – you told me that you were on numerous occasions. And yet...you let Naru continue to hit me even when it was blatantly obvious that she was in the wrong! Even worse, after the beatings, you would just walk away and leave me laying there in my own blood! What kind of love for me do you call _that?"_

"Kei-kun! I – _uh_ – _um-?"_ the shocked turtle girl stammered in reply, her jumbled thoughts frozen by Keitaro's sudden and most uncharacteristic outburst towards her. "J-just what are you trying to say-?"

"I'll tell you what kind," the cold-eyed Keitaro went on ruthlessly, before Mutsumi could even try to give him a coherent answer. "The same sort that Naru had for me – _false. _And just like hers was, your claimed love for me is nothing but a lie, too!"

Mutsumi's already pale face went even whiter at Keitaro's angry and soul-wrenchingly truthful words to her. She had never seen him this angry before – ever. But Keitaro was one hundred percent correct with what he had just said. Instead of attempting to defend Keitaro from Naru's usually totally unjustified wrath, she _had_ usually done exactly as he had just spelled it out to her…absolutely nothing to help him, at all.

Mutsumi had dreamed of the day when Keitaro would fall out of love with Naru, and she would have her chance to get him to finally notice her as more than just a friend. And now, against all odds, it appeared that day had unbelievably come. But instead of being able to give Keitaro the love and comfort that she longed to give him, and that he deserved after his years of suffering and heartbreak at the hands of his violent ex-crush, to find out that she, too, was on the outer with him was almost too much for the taken-aback turtle girl to bear.

Despite the burning guilt she was now feeling at having been unable to ease the cross that Keitaro had borne for so many years, the shocked Mutsumi knew all-too-well that unless she took drastic action to remedy the situation right now, the man she loved would never ever look upon her again as anyone other than a false friend who had betrayed him. So she took a step forward and reached out to the bitter young man in desperate appeal.

"But Kei-kun…?" Mutsumi implored, tears of regret pouring down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry I couldn't do more to help you! But you know that my doctor warned me about getting into any physical confrontations like that, because of my-!"

"_But Kei-kun, nothing,"_ the steamed up young landlord snapped back, for once unwilling to listen to the pleas of his former best friend, slapping her trembling hand away and turning back towards the door as he spoke. "I just came by to say goodbye. I'm outta here, and out of your life for good! Just like Naru's out of mine! So goodbye, and good riddance!"

_What?_ _No. No! I can't give up – I won't give up on Kei-kun,_ the stunned girl's mind screamed_. Despite what he just told me, he needs my love and understanding, now more than ever! I have to prove to him that my love for him is true!_

"Don't go, Kei-kun!" the distraught Mutsumi cried out, dropping onto her knees in despair. _"Please?_ I do love you! _Please, please_ give me a chance to make it up to you?"

"It's – it's too late for that, Mutsumi," Keitaro bluntly declared, turning his face back to her, his right hand already on the door handle. "You won't be seeing me agai-_Waugh?"_

The desperate turtle girl had flung herself headlong at her departing love, wrapping her arms tightly against his chest, bringing them both crashing down hard onto the solid wooden floor with a bone jarring thump. As the powerful jolt of the double impact reverberated through her frail body, Mutsumi shuddered, and then her eyes rolled back and glazed over as she abruptly lost consciousness. She slumped limply forward on top of the gasping Keitaro's winded chest, to then roll off his prone body onto her back. And there Mutsumi lay where she had fallen, deathly pale and quiet; only the barely perceptible rise and fall of her imposing breasts showing that she was in fact still alive.

Hard as though Mutsumi had hit, the force of Keitaro's involuntary contact with the hard, unyielding floorboards was far worse, considering that he had the full weight of the turtle girl on top of him as he hit. For a couple of seconds, stars danced around the blurry shape of her ceiling, and such was his nausea, he thought that he would throw up. But the unpleasant sensation subsided just in time to allow him to hold back from having that particular messy mishap. _Thank goodness_.

With a loud groan, the already battered Tokyo U graduate managed to sit painfully up again, one hand instinctively reaching back to caress the brand new bump on the back of his throbbing skull.

"Ow-wouch! _'Cough!'_ Mutsumi! What in the heck did you do that for…?"

It was only then that the grimacing, still half-winded Keitaro finally noticed the motionless body of his female best friend. Instantly, his facial expression changed from that of pain, to one of rapidly increasing alarm at what he was seeing.

"Mutsumi…?"

"_Mutsumi!"_

-:-:-:-:-:-

It wasn't until a little over an hour later that the catatonic turtle girl finally began to stir once again. As consciousness returned, Mutsumi's eyes flickered open, then shut again, before snapping open for a second time as her memories of what had transpired came rushing back into her confused mind.

_Kei? I remember now! Oh my god, no! He was so angry with me for being unable to help him, and now he's left me for good! Kei-kuuun!_

Raising up her head from the soft pillow it had been resting on, the twin-antennaed brunette stared off in anguished misery towards her doorway, to espy-

"Ke-Kei-kun? You're…you're still here…?"

"Yep," the battered and bruised young university graduate answered, smiling down with relief on his face at the dazed looking turtle girl, whom was now laying comfortably where he had placed her on her previously laid out futon. "I couldn't just run off and leave you unconscious on the hard wooden floor, could I? Anyway, I'm just glad that you're going to be all right! You had me really worried there for a few minutes."

"Oh, Kei-kun! Thank you!" the wildly happy Mutsumi responded, overwhelming gratitude at his continued presence in her room shining from her loving eyes. "I was so worried that I'd never see you again, I just-!"

"Yeah…I felt it too," Keitaro stated, transferring his right hand from his still sore jaw to begin rubbing ruefully at the fresh lump on the back of his head_. "Owwie._ First Naru flattens me, and then you do. Heh, heh! Not the greatest day of my life today, I must admit."

"Kei-kun! Please forgive me for-?"

"No, no, relax Mutsumi, it's fine," the repentant ex-_ronin_ hastened to assure the turtle girl, punctuating that declaration with a chuckle. "What happened was my fault, not yours. I was acting like a jerk towards you, and I'm glad that you knocked some sense back into me before I did something that I know I'd regret for the rest of my life."

"So…so you're not mad at me any more for not helping you…?"

"No, and I shouldn't have been in the first place. Anyway, I'm so sorry for biting your head off before," Keitaro contritely apologized to the more than relieved young woman. "God, when I saw you hit the floor; all of my anger went just like that, and all that I felt then was concern for your well being." Reaching down, he clasped Mutsumi's right hand in both of his own and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "And once I had calmed down, it all clicked, and I realized that I was totally out of line with what I said about you just before. And I now also know why you couldn't get involved and help me when Naru and I had one of our fights."

"Y-you do, Kei-kun?"

"Yeah, I figured it out," he told the surprised girl, his voice quiet and subdued. "Your fainting spells are the reason why, huh? I was such an idiot not to have realized that before. It would be foolish for you to place yourself in a stressful situation that could trigger one of them, wouldn't it? Especially since you never know whether you will wake up afterwards again from your coma, or not."

At his forgiving words, tears began to stream again from the corners of Mutsumi's eyes, this time of happiness.

"I really, really wish that I could have helped you out more, Kei-kun," she told him with genuine feeling. "I did try asking Naru-san to take it easy on you on a few occasions, but she wouldn't listen to me. And once when I tried talking to her, she got really jealous of my concern for you, thinking that I had gone back on my word to support her and you getting together. Despite my pleas to her that I wasn't trying to steal you away from her, she went storming out of her room to go and confront you about it."

Keitaro winced at that particular unpleasant memory. "Yeah, I'm not going to forget that little incident in a hurry. Naru kicked my door in, and got right up in my face about it. I tried to tell her that you and I weren't having an affair behind her back, but she didn't believe a word of it. Then, POW! On that occasion, I woke up several hours later, upside-down in a tree, if I remember correctly."

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I tried to help, but all that I succeeded in doing was making things worse for you."

"No, it's all right, Mutsumi. At least you cared enough to make the effort. It's certainly not your fault that Naru had her usual overreaction and took it the wrong way. She was the one at fault, not you."

"Thank you so much," Mutsumi whispered. "But I still can't help feeling bad about it. I never intended Naru-san to twist what I said, and then take her jealousy out on you."

"I never blamed you for that incident, anyway, so let's just forget about it, shall we?" Keitaro suggested. Then his face inexplicably took on an uncertain look as he spoke up again.

"'_Ahem!'_ Any-anyway, I need to ask you about something you told me just before you fainted…"

"Yes, Kei-kun?" Mutsumi prompted him, puzzlement now showing on her own very attractive face. "What is it?"

The unsure looking Keitaro opened his mouth to ask his awkward question, he closed it again, and then finally told the patiently waiting young woman what was on his mind.

"So…is it true what I heard? That bit about – _um_ – you still loving me, I mean? Even now, after we both thought that I'd married Naru?"

"Of course it is, Kei-kun," Mutsumi exclaimed, her heart fluttering like a huge, nervous butterfly at the unexpected topic of Keitaro's question. Her chest and throat felt suddenly short of breath and constricted as she hurriedly added, "I always have, and I always will. Please believe me, because it's true."

"I was hoping that you'd say that, Mutsumi," Keitaro hesitantly continued, nervousness in his own tone. "You see, I've been doing some hard thinking while you were unconscious just now, and, well, I've come to a decision." He gulped, and then took a deep, anxious breath. "I know this is really sudden and all, but I'd like to ask you, now that Naru and I are through for good, something really important. So, would you – _urm_ – would you…like to go out with me?"

"G-go out with you? You mean…as your new _girlfriend_, Kei-kun?" the wide-eyed and ecstatic Mutsumi breathed, clasping her now trembling hands tightly together under her chin, at last daring to hope that her fondest wish was now miraculously about to be granted by fickle and totally unpredictable fate.

"Er, yeah… If that's all right with you, that is?" came Keitaro's tentative confirmation.

_Yess!_

In reply, Mutsumi flung her arms joyfully around her startled suitor's shoulders, nearly knocking him off his feet again. _"Oh, yes, Kei-kun,"_ she whispered into his right ear, tears from her streaming eyes cascading down both of their touching cheeks. "And unlike Naru-san, I _will_ love you for forever and a day. I swear it!"

At Mutsumi's enthusiastic display of overwhelming affection for him, a huge smile of relief transformed Keitaro's previously anxious countenance. At that second, he knew for sure that his spur-of-the-moment decision to give Mutsumi a chance to prove her love for him had been the correct move for him to make, after all.

"_Phew!_ That's what I was hoping you'd say, Mutsumi," Keitaro thankfully sighed, feeling as if the weight of the world had suddenly fallen from his shoulders at her positive response. "So, as of now, we're a couple, then?"

"That's fine with me, Kei-kun," the wildly happy turtle girl agreed. But then her hands flew to her suddenly open mouth, an anxious look appearing on her face as she remembered the fiery temper of their mutual friend. "Oh my goodness? I don't know what Naru-san's going to say on the matter when she finds out, though? You two only broke up this morning, and now you're with me!"

Keitaro's face fell at the mention of his ex, and he stared moodily downwards at the polished wooden floor of Mutsumi's apartment.

"Yeah. And on the subject of Naru, I must confess that I'm not looking forward to facing her again when I get back to the apartments tonight," the troubled young man then admitted, truthfully speaking his mind to his brand new girlfriend. "Even though it's turned out that she and I were never really married, and she was the one that said we're no longer together, I'm still more than a little worried about what she might do when I tell her about you and I. I mean, Naru always has had a huge, jealous streak with regards to other girls liking me. As you well know, even before Naru and I started dating, she used to put me through the wall if I even dared to _look_ like I fancied one of the other girls at the apartments – whether it was true or not."

"Well then, why don't you stay here with me in the meantime, Kei-kun?" Mutsumi begged him, clutching at his hand as if afraid that he would leave before she could explain her idea to him. "Stay here with me in my apartment where you know that you're wanted and loved. I don't mind in the slightest, and I've got plenty of room. In fact, you can live here in my apartment for as long as you like, at least until you feel up to speaking with Naru-san again."

Her spur-of-the-moment suggestion gave the worried young man pause. It was a temporary solution to his dilemma after all – and not a bad one at that.

"Okay, Mutsumi, you've convinced me," he declared, breaking out into a smile, causing Mutsumi to jump and clap her hands together with joy. "It's a deal – if you're absolutely sure about me moving in here with you, that is?"

"Yes, Kei-kun, I am," Mutsumi confirmed, her eyes watering with tears of happiness and relief. "I love you, I always have, and I always will. Never, ever forget that."

At her heartfelt words, Keitaro's own grin grew even wider, his heart blossoming with real and genuine love for his oldest and dearest friend.

"I know that, Mutsumi," he reassured the radiant turtle girl, taking her into his arms once again. "I guess that I've always known it. And I also know now that you are the girl I always should have been with, right from the very start. I'm just so very sorry that it's taken me this long to work that out for myself."

"I'm just glad that you _have_ worked that out, Kei-kun," Mutsumi sniffed, resting her antennaed crown of dark brown hair on his most comforting shoulder, hugging him back as if she never wanted to let him go – which she didn't. "At last we're together – at long last…"

"So, _um_, what now?" Keitaro asked as they finally released each other, to gaze longingly into the other's eyes.

Mutsumi laughed, having already taken note of his somewhat less than spick and span appearance. "Well, Kei-kun, the very first thing is to get you out of those dirty, torn clothes of yours, and into my nice, hot bath," she merrily informed him. "I'll get them washed while you're bathing, and then see if I can patch them up a bit for you. _Fu, fu._ Don't worry, I have a nice, thick _kimono_ for you to wear in the meantime, okay?"

Keitaro heartily agreed with that plan, the steaming hot water would do wonders for his still bruised and aching body.

"And afterwards," Mutsumi coyly added, a slight blush on her cheeks and a twinkle in her eyes, "I'll see what I can do about your built up stress and tension, Kei-kun. After the way that Naru-san has been treating you, you must be nearly ready to explode?"

"_Um_ – yeah," the sore ex-student answered, his heart beating a little faster and his mind working as he noticed the seductive look that Mutsumi was now giving him. _I wonder what Mutsumi means by that…? Oh, man! I wonder if she's going to give me a massage, or even…something more?_

A couple of hours later on that very night, Keitaro would soon find out the answer to his unspoken question, in a most pleasant and _very_ long-time-coming way.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Alone in Mutsumi's apartment, behind a securely locked door and with no chance of any unwanted interruptions; the half-naked Keitaro and the even more scantily-clad Mutsumi were just about to get busy on her already spread out futon.

Being alone with a girl who actually _wanted_ him to kiss and fondle her was quite a novel experience for the thrilled young man. Laying back on her soft and comfortable futon with nothing but his boxer shorts on, a heady brew of elation, anticipation and nervousness warred for mastery in Keitaro's trembling body as the very curvy turtle girl came down on top of him, a knee on either side of his waist. Then she leaned forward, pressing the soft mounds of her ample breasts against his goose bump covered, bare chest.

"Oh, Kei-kun..." Mutsumi breathed into his right ear, sensually grinding her hips into her long desired boyfriend as she spoke, easily feeling his hardness against her thigh through his thin boxer shorts.

"I've wanted you...loved you...for so long..." she then whispered, nibbling on his earlobe, thrilling to the sensation of Keitaro's obviously fully erect manhood – erect not because of Naru for once, but because of _her_.

Keitaro, for his part, was indeed in a heightened state of arousal, for obvious reasons. He clutched the year-older girl tightly against his chest as his lips traced a pattern of butterfly kisses on Mutsumi's neck, ending at her pulse point, making the young woman gasp. Then his slightly trembling hands slid upwards to make soothing motions on her taut back.

"Even now, Mutsumi-chan, I...I'm so sorry for...for hurting you for so long. And...I still can't believe I said those things to you just before," Keitaro apologized. He cupped the long-haired brunette's chin and made her look at him, gazing back directly into her loving eyes. "I'm so sorry," he said, and saw Mutsumi's eyes glisten with unshed tears at his sincere words.

"It's okay...Kei!" she whispered, and reclaimed his lips with her own, easily slipping her tongue into his mouth and caressing his own one. After they finally parted, there was a distinct glint in the turtle girl's eyes and a broad smile on her face. "I did promise Naru that I'd hold back my own feelings and support her relationship with you, remember? But now…now that you've decided that you both don't love each other any more, I'm not prepared to hold back my own love for you for a second longer!"

"And mine for you, either," Keitaro reassured his ready and willing new lover, tears in his own eyes. "I still can't believe that I chose Naru over you before, even knowing perfectly well what she was like as a person. The only explanation for why I did that is because, well, love is blind, I guess…? I couldn't see what Naru was really like because I didn't want to. But now my eyes are fully open, and…and all I can see now is you, my wonderful, kind and gentle Mutsumi."

Mutsumi stared with overwhelming love into Keitaro's watering, emotion-filled eyes, and her hands moved to grasp his. She firmly, yet gently, moved his right hand upwards and onto her left, green-bra-clad breast, making herself gasp at the longed-for and thrilling contact. Keitaro gulped audibly and moved his left hand downwards to her heart-shaped behind, which was almost NOT covered by a skimpy green thong.

"And I, you, Kei-kun," she whispered back, her voice all choked up with emotion. "So let's not waste a moment more of this precious time that we've got with each other. We both know what we want, and the answer is _yes."_

Mutsumi moved her hand along with his as he began to gently squeeze and fondle her breasts and buttocks. She gasped and kissed him again passionately, and moaned unabashed into his mouth as he grew confident and began to caress her by himself.

Mutsumi didn't fall behind, though, as while one of her hands was braced against his chest, her other hand traveled further down his abs and found its way under the waistline of his boxer shorts. Unhesitantly, her hand continued going south, reached its prize, and gave Keitaro's throbbing manhood a good feel, making him gasp in the kiss.

_Ara, ara! Not a wonder of nature by any means, but not small either. Just like I imagined it would be. Fu, fu, fu!_ She thought naughtily.

Meanwhile, as Keitaro's other hand came up to stroke his super-sexy new lover's breasts, the excited young man thought...

_Damn! So they are as big as I thought they were when I saw her dressed as one of Su's brother's brides-to-be! Naru's aren't even close to being this size – not that she ever let me see them or touch them, even after we thought that we were married._

_I'm so lucky,_ they thought in unison.

Now, as the heat in their bodies became unbearable, both young lovers mutually decided they'd had enough foreplay. So Keitaro and Mutsumi quickly shed their remaining clothes and let their instincts take over.

Neither used any contraceptive protection, and truth to tell, in the passion of their newfound love for each other, neither cared.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Back in the here-and-now, even though he was totally ignorant of what Keitaro and Mutsumi had been doing with each other on a _very_ regular basis over the last two or so weeks, Kyle the hornet could see from his vantage point beside the sliding door that things between the obviously love-struck pair of humans was definitely beginning to heat up. It was blatantly obvious even to someone with a brain the size of an insect that they were about to get it on, _yet again_. Mutsumi was currently straddling Keitaro's lap with her arms wrapped around his shoulders, while he had his hands placed on her deliciously curved hips, just where they joined to her slender waist.

Even as the wary wasp watched, the male rolled the female off him and over onto her back, then he slid down on top of her.

As their passionate coupling began, Keitaro kept his undivided attention focused solely on his wonderful lover, to the exclusion of everything else. So, even if he had seen the normally incredibly alarming sight of a two-inch-long, orange and yellow _suzumebachi_ sitting on his floor, the potential peril he was in would still have failed to register in his now pleasure-wracked mind.

Seeing that the pair was going for it hard, and not in the least likely to bother about him now that they were in the throes of their rapidly building passion, Kyle took his chance to scuttle across the polished floor, right up to the side of the intertwined, vigorously rocking giants. The smell was much stronger now, and its origin appeared to be inside the discarded underpants of the male…?

Before anyone pisses himself or herself laughing, put yourself in Keitaro's place. Is it any wonder that at the glorious sight of the totally naked, ready-and-willing Mutsumi, our favorite got-nothing-ever-from-Naru, ex-_ronin_ had been guilty of a little involuntary premature ejaculation? Not that he had informed his drop-dead-sexy companion of that embarrassing fact, of course.

Running up the mound of wadded underclothing, Kyle then gave the damp stain a tentative sniff.

_Hmmm? It does smell like squid, and it's in a convenient liquid form, too,_ he thought. _I'll just whistle up the boys, and-!_

_Flopp!_

Fighting his way out from under the suffocating weight of the smelly sock that one of Keitaro's waving feet had somehow hooked and tossed on top of him, the shocked and outraged wasp launched himself into the air. His fear forgotten, the angry insect had only one thing on his mind now – dire retribution on the culprit behind the uncalled-for attack on his four-and-a-half centimeter long person.

To that end, Kyle hovered momentarily in mid-air above the energetically mating pair of humans as he chose a plump and soft looking spot on the offender for him to attack with his primary weapon. Then he dropped straight downward, tail-first, to jab the unsuspecting Keitaro directly in the center of his right butt-cheek!

"_Uuuuwaaaah!"_ the shocked ex-_ronin_ screamed, his bare butt jerking downwards and stiffening under the unexpected onslaught from the quarter-inch-long stinger of the angry hornet, the sensation of which resembled nothing so much as being stabbed by a red-hot needle. _"Oh, god? Yaaaah!"_

"_Oh, Kei-kun?"_ Mutsumi panted out in rapture from under her contorting lover at Keitaro's sudden cry, which she mistook for his ecstatic sexual release. Her gorgeous breasts heaved upwards and she threw her antennaed head back as her over-stimulated body eagerly responded to dear Keitaro's powerful thrust into her, caused by his reflex action from the sudden and extremely painful sting. "I – I'm coming, too! D-don't stop - a_hhh_…_haaaahh-hhh!"_

By sheer luck, at that very second, one of the writhing young man's flailing feet smacked into the still annoyed Kyle as he circled back for another attack. The sudden blow to his head sent the momentarily stunned wasp spinning off at a tangent, to pass through the open window of the room and spiral away along the cliff-like side of the ancient building.

As the head-shaking Kyle finally cleared his ringing mind, he immediately began to retrace his flight path back into the room of the human who had struck him twice now, the first time totally unprovoked. But even as he circled back upwards to extract further revenge by going all 'sewing machine' on the culprit, the audible sound of cursing came to his antennae, followed by the slam of a hurriedly closing window.

With a thick pane of glass now barring the furious insect from his victim, the loudly buzzing hornet had no choice but to temporarily abandon his plans and fly off to seek another entrance into the apartments. Quite apart from his anticipated revenge, there were still a lot of other intriguing smells in there for him to investigate.

-:-:-:-:-:-

However the angry hornet was to be out of luck. By the time he had re-entered the apartment block through another open window, located the correct corridor, and then crawled back under the door of Room 204 again, Kyle discovered to his disappointment that his human intended pincushion had already departed the vicinity. Little did the frustrated wasp know that his sore and sorry target was at that moment in the changing room next to the _onsen,_ with the first-aid kit from reception and the turtle girl, getting his throbbing butt well plastered up by the most sympathetic – and trying _really_ hard not to giggle – Mutsumi.

As the disappointed insect hummed despondently around the manager's room, a whiff of a new and exciting smell wafted into his nose. Deciding not to waste any more time with fruitless searching, Kyle flew up towards the hole in the ceiling that he had only just noticed, intending to check out the room directly above this one.

Where he would be witness to a second interesting sight.

-:-:-:-:-:-

_**Author's Note:**__ Yes, I know that all worker hornets are female, but this story works better with Kyle being a male. Call it 'artistic licence'._

_Part Two up soon._


	2. Chapter 2

_Heyo, and Seasons Greetings. _

_This story was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but I've now got enough material written for five chapters, with maybe even another one after that. Sheesh! If I didn't already have enough to do over the Christmas break? _

_The third chapter is almost complete._

_With regards to a possible Chapter Six - I could even write that as a separate 'M' rated Epilogue story. (Hands up everybody who wants that!)_

-:-:-:-:-:-

**LOVE HINA: FLIGHT OF THE HORNET  
**_**CHAPTER TWO**_

By Doctor-T and Major Mike Powell III

-:-:-:-:-:-

It hadn't taken long at all for the other female residents of the Hinata Apartments to discover what had happened between their landlord and his supposed wife. In fact they knew all about it only a few short hours after the angry, suddenly wife-no-longer had tried her damnest to put Keitaro into a low earth orbit. For once the totally unsuspecting boarders had returned from their Friday classes at _Toudai_, the still fuming Naru had corralled them up and then relayed on to her captive audience every little detail of the fiasco that had occurred that very morning.

It was obvious to all listening that Naru was still seething with indignation as she regaled them about how Keitaro had told her that they weren't in fact legally married, and then of their subsequent, instant, extremely violent breakup as a result of it. In addition, the irate ex-wife had emphasized to each and every one of her shocked friends several times over, and at great, expletive-punctuated length, just what an idiotic mistake she had made by actually being so dumb as to try to marry Keitaro, having decided to become the moron's bride against her better judgment, she might add. And in a dumb move on her part that she would later regret, in the heat of the moment, Naru had also made it clear to her open-mouthed, stunned friends, in no uncertain terms, that she and Keitaro were definitely through for good.

To say that all of the other girls were taken aback to discover that Naru's wedding to Keitaro had been null-and-void all along would be the understatement of the year. However, even though each and every Hinata girl had immediately feigned sympathy to their newly single friend, truth to tell, most of them were in fact secretly praying that Keitaro was indeed now a bachelor again. For, if Naru really was finished with her forcefully evicted husband-no-longer, by an unbelievable stroke of good luck on their behalf, Keitaro would be available for them to romantically pursue once more.

Unfortunately for the Hinata girls' aspirations, their optimism was all for naught. Since the missing Keitaro hadn't been in contact with any of them since his precipitatious exit through the side of the building, none of the excited girls had even a clue yet that the absent young man was holed up at Mutsumi's place, finally getting the longed for loving that he had never gotten from his evasive, intimacy-dodging, excuse-filled ex-wife.

However, as day after day slowly inched past without Keitaro reappearing, Kitsune, Motoko, Su, Shinobu and even the new girl, Ema Maeda, had all quickly sunk from a state of hopeful optimism into a similar worried state as the fretting Naru was, with regards to their young landlord's whereabouts and welfare.

But not all of the residents were afflicted by this almost universal mood of despondency hanging over the sprawling complex like an oppressive black cloud. Aunt Haruka, for instance, was a rare, contented exception amongst the worried female lodgers.

The reason for Haruka's apparent lack of concern for her absent nephew's well being was simple - Mutsumi had surreptitiously told her of Keitaro's whereabouts the very next morning after the event in question. This had happened as soon as the happy but nervous young woman had arrived for her shift at the Hinata Tea Rooms. The turtle girl, holding nothing back, then confirmed to Keitaro's dumbfounded aunt/cousin what Haruka had already heard from Naru - the astonishing truth that her missing nephew and Naru really _hadn't_ been legally married for the last three months at all. Finally, and not without a gulp of understandable apprehension, Mutsumi had informed Haruka of her and Keitaro's brand new and already consummated relationship.

But Mutsumi needn't have worried about her older, distant relative's reaction to her jaw dropping news. Upon being told of her and Keitaro's genuine love for each other, Aunt Haruka had actually broken out into a relieved smile. The now thirty-something woman then lost no time in reassuring Mutsumi that she heartily approved of her previously ill-fated nephew's newly unwed situation, and even more of Mutsumi's obviously true love for him.

And as for the now-on-the-outer Naru – well, Haruka figured that the bad-tempered brunette had used up her last chance with Keitaro. If Naru and Keitaro really could have worked things out between them, they would have done so by now. It really _was_ better for him to be able to move on; no strings attached, rather than be trapped in a loveless and fake marriage.

With regards to the thorny question of whether or not to pass Mutsumi's news on to Kanako, Aunt Haruka had first taken the time to think long and hard about whether to tell her niece of Keitaro's current whereabouts and status. After all, his sister did have a right to know that her older brother was alive and well. But Haruka wasn't at all sure how Kanako would react to finding out that her beloved _Oniichan_ was now dating Mutsumi – especially in light of the fact that Kanako still loved Kei-kun in a way that was _definitely_ unsisterlike.

In the end, Haruka had compromised, only telling the vastly relieved Goth girl that Keitaro was taking a little time out, and that he would be back at the apartments with them all again soon. And Kanako had been more than satisfied with that. Indeed, it was all the overjoyed girl could do to stop herself from actually _smiling_ upon discovering that the rumor of her beloved _Oniichan's_ permanent split with the totally unworthy Naru was in fact the pure, unvarnished truth.

-:-:-:-:-:-

It was now the Friday after Naru had sent Keitaro flying out of her life. One entire week had gone by since the break-up, and he still hadn't returned to the Hinata Apartments. Nor had Keitaro phoned his wife-no-longer, or to Naru's knowledge, anyone else for that matter, to tell her or them where he now was.

By now, even though she was trying hard not to show it in front of the other residents, Naru was definitely having second thoughts about permanently giving her long time crush the boot. The truth of the matter was she was now almost frantic with worry about the continued and totally unexplained absence of her ex. The apprehensive ex-bride was even beginning to think that maybe she had hit him too hard, and that her punch - either by itself, or in combination with Keitaro's subsequent and no-doubt high velocity impact with the ground – had accidentally killed him.

_But, no – now I'm just being silly! I'm absolutely, positively sure that Keitaro is still alive,_ the morose young woman reassured herself for the umpteenth time as she moped around in her room after breakfast, simultaneously cursing her overactive imagination for tormenting her with 'what ifs'. _If Keitaro were dead, then the police would have been around here long before this to break the news to us, wouldn't they? Besides, after all the punishment I've seen that idiot bounce back from over the years – including falling over several cliffs and being squashed by the 'giant onion' when it blew off the _Nihon Budokan_ hall at Tokyo U – he has to be an immortal of some sort. He goddamn well _can't_ die._

…_Well, I don't think that he can…_

…_I hope…_

Tears erupted from the corners of Naru's already red eyes as her vivid imagination kicked in once again.

_Oh my god! Maybe poor Keitaro _is_ dead, and his body is laying hidden in a ditch somewhere, where no one can find it? I already know that Keitaro's not laying injured in Hinata Hospital; we've checked that out already. And he wouldn't just run away and leave all of his responsibilities here at the apartments behind, so c-could it be true? Did I accidentally kill him, after all…?_

"'_Sniff!' Waaaah!"_

A couple of seconds later, Naru abruptly stopped stock-still in the middle of her bawling and her tears cut out as she was struck by a second, almost as disturbing thought.

…_Or would he? 'Sniff!' Kei-Keitaro's sister, Kanako, is back living here now, and she's being doing his manager's job for the last week, _Naru reminded herself, sitting upright with a jolt as everything seemed to finally make sense. _So, that could mean…?_

Her expression changed from misery to one of contemplation as she began to put two-and-two together, her mind working on this new and most suspicious train of thought.

_Maybe…maybe Keitaro somehow planned all of this to happen? Yeah! I'll bet you that brother-loving cow, Kanako, is in on his little scheme, too. That'd be just like her to help him out, and piss me off at the same time. Damn it! So Keitaro's not injured or dead after all – his witch of a sister's covering for him while he takes time off on a merry little break away from me!_

_Shit! That must be it! _Naru clenched her fists in sudden rage, sure now that all of her worrying about the fate of her bumbling ex had been for nothing. _Why, that sneaky little weasel? Here I am worrying myself sick about Keitaro, and all of this time he's been slacking off in some hotel or resort, living it up without me! Maybe even with another girl in tow, too? Grrrrr! Just you wait, Keitaro, I'm going to kick your ass up around your ears when I see you again!_

The outraged Naru jumped to her feet, ran to her open window, and brandished her right fist, waving it wildly as she screamed down towards the sunlit plaza:

"_You jerk!"_

-:-:-:-:-:-

When she met up with the other residents in the dining hall that selfsame Friday night, the still fuming Naru relayed her theory on to her gathering friends, of Keitaro slacking off on a no-doubt planned holiday away from them. However, to her surprise, only Motoko seemed inclined to agree with the clearly jealous young woman's suspicions as to the real, underhanded reason behind their usually reliable young landlord's mysterious, so far week-long absence. Even though the kendo girl surreptitiously (or so she still tried to convince herself of this, even though her infatuation was more than obvious to the other residents) still loved Keitaro just as much as any of the other girls living there did, she had always harbored a long time aversion towards all men, being especially distrustful of their devious, usually perverted habits.

The kendo girl's reasoning to the others was this: Keitaro was, after all, a man (of sorts), wasn't he? Which unfortunately meant he, too, was inherently morally lacking and untrustworthy. Therefore, she sadly concluded out loud to her despondent circle of listeners, Keitaro was perfectly capable of reverting to type and pulling an underhanded stunt such as this. Disappointing from their point of view to be sure, but regrettably almost certainly true.

However, Kitsune, being ever thoughtful, wasn't nearly so sure of Keitaro's supposed duplicity as Naru obviously was. Nor was Kit so positive about Keitaro's lack of moral fiber as the ever-cynical Motoko always seemed to be. This sudden vanishing act, without even a phone call to inform them where he was going and for how long, was totally out of character for their landlord, no matter how fed up he might be at being punched out by Naru. So the fox girl spoke up and told Naru and Motoko just that.

"Naru, gal, yer trippin'! And Motoko, Ah don't even think that _you_ believe what ya just told us, do ya? For god's sake, will the both of ya just think about what you're saying for a minute?"

"Wha-? What do you mean-?" Naru began to ask, her forehead creasing in a frown. Personally, in her outraged state of mind, she was more than willing to believe Motoko's version of probable events.

Kit pointed a finger at her fuming best friend. "Naru, you know more'n most that good ol' Kei went through hell and back just to get ya in the first place, didn't he? He's loved ya from day one, gal. And we all know just how over the moon Kei was when he finally succeeded in marryin' you. So, why in the hell would he be off cheating on ya while he still thought you were his wife? Just answer me that, willya?"

And in response to Naru's further protestations that instead of Keitaro's unexplained absence being due to injury, there really _was_ a good chance it was because her tardy ex was off seeing another girl behind her back, right this very minute, Kit had been prepared for just this comeback. She had one more most relevant point that she wished to make perfectly clear to her angsty best friend.

"Well, Sweetie, you'd best consider the worst option first. Because if, thanks to you, Keitaro _is_ layin' dead or badly injured somewhere out there, the possibility of him having been datin' another woman should be the least of ya worries. If Ah were you, Ah'd be more concerned about getting' the hell outta Dodge before the cops come and toss ya in the slammer. 'Cause sooner or later someone's gonna find his body and trace it back to you!"

"But if your new theory is correct and Keitaro really _is_ just takin' a quiet break away from ya - well, y'all told us on numerous occasions every single day last week that you and Keitaro aren't legally married, and never were in the first place. And Ah also seem to remember you tellin' us that you broke up with Kei when you made two new doorways with him - which damage _still_ hasn't been fixed, Ah might add, _Ms Landlord_."

"N-never mind about that," Naru snapped back, uncomfortably aware that Keitaro was the one who always did the repairs to the boarding house, as and when necessary. "I tell you I'll get it done! What's your point you're trying to make here, Kitsune?"

"Ah'm just getting' to that, Naru. Mah point is this - even if Kei _is_ uninjured and really _is_ off somewhere in some lovey-dovey lil' hidey-hole with another girl, it really ain't none of your business any more, is it? After all, he's _not_ cheatin' on you with her if ya aren't together any more, even as boyfriend and girlfriend, is he?"

Her cheeks reddening with discomfort, Naru opened her mouth to make an instinctive rebuttal of Kit's damning statement, but then she shut her gob again with a snap. A haunted look appeared in the ex-wife's eyes as she thought her situation through, in light of what her long time best friend had just reminded her about.

As much as Naru wanted to, she really couldn't argue with what Kit Fox had just said. She _had_ broken up with Keitaro when she kicked him out. And after declaring that very thing to Kitsune and the others on numerous occasions since the sorry event, she couldn't just suddenly deny it to them now, could she? Not without leaving her credibility in shreds, anyway.

No, the damage had already been done. She had well and truly burned her bridges with Keitaro, this time. And it was at that exact second that the suddenly pale-faced young woman broke out into a cold sweat as she realized with a shiver that she really didn't have any claim on her missing ex any more. Keitaro was now - thanks to her instinctively violent overreaction - a single man. Consequently, he could now do as he pleased, without having to answer to her for his actions.

Even if those actions included dating other women…and doing even more than that with them, should the girl concerned be willing...

'_Gulp!' Oh, Keitaro…? Please come back to me…? I'm – I'm sorry!_

As she noticed the tearful expression of misery transforming Naru's face, Kitsune thought that she'd better speak up again before the waterworks well and truly started.

"'Course, ya _do_ realize that we're only speculatin' here, Naru," she hurriedly consoled her upset friend. "So don't get ya knickers in a twist just yet, girl! Chances are that good ol' Kei will come waltzin' back in through the front door any day now. And when he does, Ah strongly advise you to eat a heapin' helpin' of humble pie and beg him to take you back – if ya really do feel that strongly about keeping him, that is?"

"What? D-don't be ridiculous, Kit," Naru exclaimed, just a shade too quickly, her face reddening even more and her tears vanishing as if by magic. "Who – who said anything about me wanting that moron back, anyway? _As if?_ _Hmmph!_ Where do you come up with crap like that?"

Kitsune laughed at her indignant, blushing, pouting friend. "Well, you just keep tellin' yahself that, girl," she chuckled, digging back into her plate of food again, the other watching girls quickly following suit. "After all, it's obvious from the look on your face that the two of you are made for each other!"

"_Are not!_ Now, I'm hungry, and this conversation is over!"

As the flustered, frowning Naru gave her full, undivided attention to her dinner; the thoughtful-looking Kitsune wasn't fooled by her friend's act of bravado at all.

_Nice try, Naru, but no dice. We can all tell that ya still do love Kei, though I'm damned if Ah know why you're now so uptight about admitting it in front of us,_ she mused, idly sipping at her soup as she watched her flustered friend out of the corner of her half closed eyes._ You aren't foolin' no one, it's obvious that ya totally miserable without him around to bug ya! But personally, Ah hope that you and Kei don't get back together again. Time for someone else to have a shot at him, Ah think…someone like me!_

Shinobu, Su, Motoko and Ema had been mostly silent spectators to the continuing drama unfolding at their table. But as the somber quartet of Keitaro addicts began to eat – some a little more enthusiastically than others – their individual thoughts were mostly along the same lines as those of the scheming Kit Fox.

_Naru is still saying that she doesn't want Keitaro back! This is my big chance to win him with my newfound competence and femininity, _was the gist of Motoko's thoughts. _I lost him to Naru once – I am _not_ going to do so again!_

If the newly hopeful Motoko was mostly succeeding with keeping an impassive expression on her classically beautiful face, Shinobu, to the contrary, was having a hard time stopping her excitement from bubbling forth at this most unexpected turn of events.

_Oh, Sempai! If you and Naru really are finished, then…at last – at long last – I have my chance to confess my love to you! And I'm old enough now to make it work between us!_

To the gorgeous, now nineteen-year-old cook and Tokyo University sophomore's right hand side, in total contrast to her two fellow would-be Keitaro suitors, the tanned Molmol Princess, like the sullen, uncommunicative Naru, was concentrating mostly on her food.

_This is really, really yummy!_ _I wonder if Shinobu made seconds?_ Kaolla mused; elbows flying as she happily chomped her way through her repast in a most unladylike fashion. _Oh, yeah, about Kei-Baby. Heh! I'm not worried at all if the other girls wanna try their luck with him. Now that Naru's kicked him to the curb, I'm gonna _bribe _Keitaro with a royal title and bags of moolah to marry me. Nyahahaha! I've got this one in the bag!_

Finally, with regards to the slender, shy and usually totally unconfident Ema Maeda, sitting quietly in her seat on Shinobu's left hand side, fiddling thoughtfully with her chopsticks:

_Keitaro Urashima is sure weird…but all of the other girls here seem to agree that he's quite a catch. But for some strange reason, Naru really doesn't seem to want him any more. I don't know why – from what I've seen while I've been living here, it sure seems to me like _she_ is the source of all of their marriage problems, not him!_

_Hmmm…? I…I wonder if _I_ could actually have a chance to get to know Keitaro Urashima better, now that he's definitely single? Oh, gosh! What am I saying? I've never even had a boyfriend my own age before…and here I am, actually thinking about catching an older man, who's a real, live Tokyo University graduate to boot…!_

'Blush!'

As her bespectacled face crimsoned, Ema ducked her head back down again as unwelcome reality intruded once more into her overly imaginative mind.

_Yeah, right? As if?_ She berated herself, trying hard to pour cold water onto her newly blossomed fantasy. Ema shook her head, her spirit of hopeful optimism nose-diving as she realized her own shortcomings – especially when compared to the physical and mental near-perfection of her female competition for their landlord's affections, the girls in question right there next to her._ No, no, you're just dreaming, Ema – there's no possible way you can get h-!_

_Hey! But - I just remembered that I _did_ manage to grab Naru's bouquet at their wedding, didn't I? And legend has it; achieving that means I should actually be the next one of the girls here to get married…?_

_And why shouldn't that tale be true, as well? The legend of the fabled Hinata house, where everyone manages to get into Tokyo U, sure turned out to be no mere urban myth, didn't it. And I have also found out from Shinobu that there's a certain kind of magic in this place that helps your dreams to come true – provided that you never give up on trying to achieve them, that is…_

_Wow! So that means, despite everything that they went through and all of the obstacles in their way they had to overcome, if Naru could still succeed in snagging Keitaro against all odds, then maybe…just maybe…so can I?_

Unfortunately for the best-laid plans of mice and love-struck female boarders, they were all fated to be doomed to romantic disappointment yet again. Even though the girls didn't know it yet, this unpalatable fact had been preordained from the very moment that the comatose Mutsumi had woken up next to Keitaro in her room.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Of course, Keitaro couldn't hide from Naru and the other residents forever. Nor had he any wish to do so, or to just vanish from their lives and start up somewhere else with Mutsumi. The young landlord had responsibilities to fulfill, and despite the danger he could very well be putting himself in by returning to the Hinata Apartments, the justifiably apprehensive _Toudai_ graduate/ budding archaeologist was not one to shirk his duty to the people in his care.

And sure enough, the very next morning, almost exactly eight days to the hour from when he had been evicted from his own premises by Naru's fist, Keitaro Urashima arrived back at the Hinata Apartments. Nor had he come back alone. Mutsumi was on his arm, and both apprehensive young lovers were fully braced to face the music from the no doubt pissed off, ex-love of Keitaro's previously unhappy life.

As luck would have it, the very first person the pair encountered after walking up the wooden staircase from the downstairs lobby toward his second story room, was Naru, herself. Right on cue, Keitaro's beautiful ex happened to slide open the door of Room 204 just as Keitaro and Mutsumi arrived in the hallway right next to it.

As their eyes met, Naru despondently gave the startled Keitaro a listless greeting, and made to move past him into the hallway, only to slam to an abrupt halt as her mind finally registered just who it was standing there right in front of her. Naru's eyes shot open and she did a double take, before seizing the hapless Keitaro by his collar and dragged him bodily back through the doorway into their room, Mutsumi hurrying along in their wake.

When the shouting and yelling of their reunion finally died down, Naru asked point-blank why Keitaro hadn't even bothered to phone and let her know that he was all right.

"And, _um_, I've really missed – I mean, wondered about what had happened to you, you idiot," Naru added in a gentler tone, before the sweating Keitaro could even begin to try to answer her quite reasonable query. Then an uncomfortable expression inexplicably appeared on Naru's face, she shuffled her feet uncomfortably, and a faint blush colored her cheeks. Finally she took a deep, nervous breath and forced herself to admit to him what was really on her mind.

"Look, Keitaro, I'm sorry for hitting you so hard last week," she apologized, her voice soft and contrite. "Even though you lost our wedding papers, I was way out of line when I did that to you. And I take back what I said about us being through for good, too, okay? Let's start again, and this time we'll both be more careful about what we do and say, all right? So, let's, well, shake hands and make up, and put all of this – _um_ – unpleasantness behind us."

"Sooo, do…do you agree with us doing that, Keitaro…?"

The reason for the no longer upset Naru's not all that surprising change of heart towards her ex was simple. It was during her seemingly never-ending, fretful wait for Keitaro to return home last week that the thoroughly miserable feeling Naru had come to realize and at long last accept one inescapable truth about her situation. And even though she would even now emphatically deny this fact to her friends, the one thing that Naru was more afraid of than having Keitaro love her was _not_ having him love her.

The long days and nights she had suffered through alone in their shared room had proven to Naru, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that without Keitaro there at her side, she felt nothing but unhappiness and a deep emptiness inside.

And no matter how much the uneasy ex-bride tried to ignore, rationalize away, or flat out dismiss these feelings of abandonment, she knew that no one but Keitaro could ever fill that gaping void in her lonely heart.

She needed him with her to be whole. She needed his love for her to be happy. End of story.

And what Naru wanted from Keitaro, she usually got, by hook or by crook.

_Usually._

But, as she was about to find out to her astonished disbelief, it wasn't going to happen this time.

"No, I'm sorry, Naru, but stop." Keitaro held up his right palm for emphasis. "I hear you, but I just don't believe a word you say to me any more. And is it any wonder? You've had seven years to prove your commitment to me. You haven't, and I've had enough. So I've decided to move on with my life. I'm moving on from _you_."

He then took a deep breath, and stated, calmly and clearly: "So, I'm _not_ taking you back, Naru. We can still be friends, but that's it. As partners, we're…we're through for good – just like _you_ told me we were when you fired me off the plateau last week."

"_Wha-what? You're turning me down? But, Keitaro-?"_

"I'm so sorry, Naru-san," Mutsumi contritely stated, cutting Naru's words off as she stepped forward to take Keitaro's right hand in her left one. "I really am."

_"Mutsumi,"_ Naru wailed, not failing to notice their clasping of hands, and feeling _very_ uneasy because of it. _"What's going on?"_

"Please understand, Naru-san, I kept my promise and supported your relationship in full, right up until you and Kei-kun got married. And even after that, when things began to fall apart between you two," the Okinawan girl explained, her usual smile conspicuously absent from her face for once. "But now it turned out that you _aren't_ married to him after all. You threw poor Kei-kun out, and told him that you and he are finished as a couple, all for something that wasn't his fault. Because of that, Kei-kun told me that he doesn't want to get back with you again, no matter what you might say about it. Then, entirely of his own accord, since he was now single, he asked me to be his new girlfriend. And because I truly love Kei-kun, I gladly accepted his offer."

"_What?"_ Naru yelled, looking as if she couldn't believe her ears after what she had just heard. _"You're telling me that you and – and-?"_

"Mut-Mutsumi and I are together now," Keitaro confirmed, a nervous stutter in his voice at the expression now on his ex's face. "And…and we have been staying together for the la-last week…"

"Kei…Keitaro? You…_you bastard!_ We have one little fight, and then you go out and sleep around on me?" Naru shouted out in shock, feeling as if someone had just punted her heart right up into her throat. Her temper instantly reverted to type. "What in the hell is wrong with you, you two-timing little weasel? I'm gonna-!"

As she saw the familiar wild light of uncontrollable fury appear in Naru's eyes, Mutsumi knew that she had to act fast, or possibly see murder done. Totally forgetting all about her fragile medical condition in the urgency of the moment, she hurriedly stepped between the pair, her arms outstretched in appeal.

"Oh my, Naru-san, stop! It's not Kei-kun's fault-!"

At the turtle girl's sudden interjection, Naru rounded on her with a vengeance, fists clenched and a look of hatred twisting at her face.

"And you stay out of this, you home wrecking Turtle slut!" the desperate new single spat out, her drawn back fist now moving to focus on her new target. "I trusted you to keep your word, Mutsumi, and you ended up fucking my husband behind my back! Just for that, here's a taste of what he's gonna get!"

Or so the vengeful Naru thought. However, unbeknown to the spurned girl, Keitaro's sister, Kanako, had previously noticed from the plaza-facing window of her upstairs room, her brother and Mutsumi arriving back at the Hinata Apartments. Knowing perfectly well that her returning _Oniichan's_ first destination would no-doubt be the landlord's room on the level below her, the excited but wary Goth girl quickly made plans to eavesdrop in secret on the sure to be _very_ interesting conversation the pair would soon be having with Naru. To that end, using the stealth skills she had been taught by her grandmother, Kanako quickly and silently slipped in through the hole in the floor that opened up into her destination. And now Kanako clung to the ceiling of her brother's room between two crossbeams like a deadly black bat, her hidden presence totally unsuspected by the three people beneath her, the Goth girl watching with keen interest all that transpired between them.

Seeing what was about to happen, the lurking Kanako could take no more. Making her move, she dropped straight down from the ceiling, to land squarely atop the furious Naru, even as the totally out-of-control girl swung a vicious punch at Mutsumi's pale face.

Kanako deflected the punch harmlessly downwards, and in the twinkling of an eye, had Naru securely trussed up with the coil of rope that she usually carried, the other girl's arms and legs tightly bound and a gag in her mouth. Then the Goth girl hoisted the furiously struggling young woman up over her shoulders in a fireman's carry, and toted her away towards the door that opened up into the hallway.

"You're out of the picture, Narusegawa," Kanako told her insanely jealous captive with relish. "At long last _Oniichan_ has moved on from you, and not before time, I might add. And since you're the one who ended it with him in the first place, you've got no complaints about him finding someone else. So get lost!"

"Mmmm! _Nmmmhh! Mmm-nmmm!"_ the outraged Naru protested through the tight gag, striving with all of her might to burst her bonds and return to the attack. But to no avail – when it came to knots, Kanako knew her stuff.

"Don't worry, _Oniichan_, Mutsumi," Kanako called back to the pair, seconds before she slid the door shut behind her and her wriggling burden. "I'll make damn sure that this psychotic bitch stays well away from you two while you sort things out between yourselves. She won't be bothering you two again while I'm around!"

And then they were gone.

The sweat-dropping Keitaro and Mutsumi turned to face each other, shock on both of their faces at what had just happened.

"_Well?"_ Mutsumi shakily exclaimed, the turtle lady still pale and taken aback by Naru's totally unwarranted violent response towards her. "I didn't know that Naru-san would take the news of us being together quite this badly. I was worried that she might try to hit you again for it, Kei-kun, but I never thought that she'd try to hit me. _Oh, my?"_

Keitaro sighed, his heart still pounding at their _very_ close call. "I suspected she might, Mutsumi." Then an undercurrent of anger appeared in the young landlord's voice, and he glared towards the door again. "Just what is Naru's problem, anyway?" he growled. _"She_ was the one that broke up with me, and said that it was over for good between us. So I'm _not_ cheating on her with you, and you _didn't_ steal me away from her, not matter what she chooses to think!"

Mutsumi leaned in and wrapped her arms sympathetically around her new boyfriend to help calm his sudden bad mood. Keitaro relaxed somewhat at her gentle touch as he embraced in return his wonderful new love.

"Well, Kei-kun, at least that's the worst of it out of the way, first," the turtle girl consoled him, finding a silver lining to their situation in typical Mutsumi fashion. "Naru-san is just going to have to learn to live with the fact that we're together now, I guess. Come on, we'd best let our other friends know about the real truth of our new status together, while we've got the chance. I think that it'd be best to do it right now, before all manner of false rumors begin flying around about you two-timing Naru-san."

"Yeah, let's go do just that," Keitaro hurriedly agreed, galvanizing himself into action as the common sense inherent in her words struck home. Still arm-in-arm with Mutsumi, they quickly made their way towards the door of his room. "Kanako should be able to keep Naru occupied for long enough for us to be able to put our side of the story forward first, so let's not waste our window of opportunity!"

_But I don't think that I'm out of the woods just yet,_ _by any means,_ Keitaro silently gulped, a very worried look reappearing in his eyes. _And Mutsumi was wrong with what she just said about the worst of telling the others being over. If Motoko gets the wrong idea about me this time, what we've just gone through dealing with Naru is going to look like a picnic!_

-:-:-:-:-:-

At about this time, on the wide expanse of lawn out back of the Hinata Apartments, Kanako was dumping her trussed up, fuming burden down _hard_ onto the ground, the impact electing an audible, _"Oof!"_ through the gag covering the mouth of her writhing captive. In one swift motion, the Goth girl pulled the bowknots that loosened Naru's restraints. And then she stepped backwards for a couple of paces to await the other girl's no-doubt explosive response to having her uncalled for attack against the turtle lady thwarted in such a uncompromising fashion.

Trembling with rage, Naru sprang up to her feet, to rip the gag out of her sore mouth with one hand, and point a furious finger at the remarkably unconcerned-looking Goth girl with the other.

"What? You _finally_ got something coherent to say, Naru?" Kanako coolly asked, standing with her arms calmly folded. "Well, then, don't be shy. Out with it."

"What's your god-damned problem, Kanako?" Naru nearly screamed. "This whole fuck-up has got nothing at all to do with you, you brother-loving freak! This is between me, that traitorous, backstabbing turtle-slut, Mutsumi, and that moronic, lecherous, woman chasing husband of mine! So you just keep your sticky beak outta our private business, you scrawny witch!"

"I'm _Oniichan's_ sister, so that _makes_ it my business," Kanako pointed out to the seething older girl. "He and I are family, and so is Turtle Bimbo – even if somewhat distantly in her case. And since it turned out that you and _Oniichan_ were never legally married in the first place, he's _not_ your husband, Narusegawa, and you're _not_ part of our family any more, thank god! But, like I told you, Mutsumi _is_ family, so be warned. In our clan, if you mess with one Urashima, you mess with us all."

"I'll mess with her, all right," the enraged Naru yelled, waving her tightly clenched fists. "Some friend Mutsumi turned out to be – promising to support my relationship with Keitaro, and then stealing him away from me! And you can just get the hell out of my way, you pasty-faced ghoul! Don't think I've forgotten that you've been interfering in my relationship with Keitaro, too, right back to when you first set foot in the Hinata Apartments!"

"And you've been interfering in mine with him," Kanako replied, holding her temper in check for the nonce. "So we're even."

"Screw you, Kanako! I'll have you know Keitaro and I promised each other that we'd go to _Toudai_ together, way back before you were even born! So I have first dibs on him, not you, Mutsumi or anyone else!"

"Actually, from what I hear, Turtle Idiot knew him first," Kanako smugly corrected her rival. "I happen to know from our parents that Mutsumi and _Oniichan_ were best friends way before you appeared on the scene to plague him. So if anyone, apart from myself, of course, has any claim on my brother at all, it's her. You certainly don't any more, at any rate!"

"Not if I kick Mutsumi's lying, husband-stealing ass back to Okinawa for breaking her word, she doesn't," Naru countered, a touch of both jealously and desperation now noticeable in her angry tone. "Nobody steals Keitaro away from me and gets away with it!"

"Mutsumi's not the one responsible for _Oniichan_ leaving you, Naru._ You are,_" the not at all sympathetic Kanako told her adversary, with brutal honesty. "She never lured him away from you. You _chased_ him away from you, with all of your never-ending tantrums, put-downs, baseless accusations and beatings for no reason."

Then Kanako pointed her own right index finger at the apoplectic older girl, and an edge of steel entered her voice as she coldly added, "You're an abuser, Narusegawa, and _Oniichan_ finally decided that he'd had enough of putting up with your bullshit. _Fuck_, after seven years of torment at your hands, why in the hell does him leaving you come as such a great surprise to you? Just accept some responsibility for your own disgraceful actions, piss off, and leave him and Turtle Idiot be. Or else I'll _make_ you leave them be."

"You want a piece of me, Kanako?" Naru gritted through clenched teeth, a vein in her forehead throbbing with rage, even though her thoughts were also consumed by guilt and shame at the undeniable truth in the Goth girl's words. Despite the fact that a small, shrill, nagging voice in the back of her mind was telling Naru that she was in the wrong, and she had gotten exactly what she deserved with Keitaro leaving her, there was no way that her stubborn pride was going to let her admit it, especially to Kanako. So her feet instinctively moved into a defensive stance that Noriyasu Seta had taught her, and up came her fists to the guard position. "Then bring it on!"

Then Kanako actually smiled, her highly trained body slipping effortlessly into the Urashima-style _Jujitsu_ ready stance. This was going to be a real pleasure!

"Don't mind if I do."

-:-:-:-:-:-

And so Naru and Kanako had fought each other to a standstill.

The fight had gone on for longer than Kanako had thought that it would. Naru had been tougher than the Goth girl had expected, and she couldn't help but feel a grudging respect for her certainly strong, though not nearly as skilled adversary. But despite Naru's unexpected stubbornness and stamina, and the occasional, lucky – and painful - hit the tenaciously fighting girl had managed to land on her, the end result had been as predicted, all the same.

Naru had lost.

After a lifetime of getting her own way, Naru had finally met someone who wasn't intimidated by her, wasn't going to back down and give in to her demands, and was perfectly capable of putting her in her place whenever she threw a violent tantrum.

Kanako was that person, and with one final _sumi masen_ punch to Naru's _solar plexus_ that dropped her like a stone, the Goth girl had done just that.

As the panting Kanako hauled the beaten Naru up by her hair from the ground, until her battered face was only inches away from that of the victorious younger woman, the exhausted, sore and very sorry Naru finally gave up her futile struggle. Knowing that there was no-way she could now win, she bowed her disheveled head in complete and utter submission to the will of the other girl.

"If I can't have _Oniichan,_ then neither can you," Kanako declared, her own disappointment at missing out on her beloved _Oniichan's _affections now somewhat mitigated by her subjugation of her previous rival for his love. "If I, who have loved _Oniichan_ all of my life, can finally accept that he's found happiness with someone else, surely you can do the same? _Heh._ Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass if you can or can't, because either way, you're _not_ getting back together with him again."

Despite suffering badly from the effects of the prolonged beating she had just endured, Naru still had a shred of defiance left in her badly bruised body. As Kanako's words registered in the dazed, confused mind of the ex-wife, the unreasonableness of the demand brought her stubborn streak to the fore once again.

"No! It's not over – it's not! I can't – I won't give up on Keitaro!"

"_Wrong,"_ Kanako contradicted her, in tones of finality. "Just accept it, Naru; your false marriage to my brother is over for good." Her steely grip tightened in Naru's bedraggled hair, eliciting a gasp of pain. "So, as of now, you're going to stop obsessing over him and pestering him to take you back." She clenched her free fist and held it threateningly under Naru's bleeding nose. "Any objections?"

Naru quickly opened her mouth to frame another protest, and any further physical punishment from the Goth girl for doing so, be damned. But then her jaw snapped shut again as cruel reality kicked in. Keitaro really _was_ gone for good. She had blown it well and truly with him. And now that their supposed marriage was legally null-and-void, there was no way in hell that Keitaro was ever going to come back to her – not that she deserved his love now, of course.

Not liking Naru's hesitation at all, Kanako frowned, and then snapped into sudden action. Seizing the other girl by her right arm, Kanako flipped Naru off her feet and down onto her knees, then twisted the captured arm up hard behind Naru's straining back. Grabbing her enemy's long flowing hair in her other hand once more, Kanako pulled her captive's head roughly backwards, and hissed menacingly into her right ear.

"I said that you're going to stay away from my brother from now on, Narusegawa. Any objections, bitch?"

"N-no, Kanako," Naru whimpered, knowing now with certainty that any further resistance to the inevitable on her part would be but a painful exercise in futility. Quite apart from that important point, she was also acutely aware that with Keitaro now permanently with Mutsumi, there was absolutely no point in her fighting for him now, anyway. "I give up," she hastened to add, tears of pain squeezing out of the corners of her eyes. "I'll…I'll do as you say… I swear!"

"Yes, you will," Kanako purred. Abruptly she knelt down behind the trembling Naru, her strong arms suddenly clamping down in a tight sleeper hold around the bent-back neck of her captive.

"_Ahg-gakk!"_ Naru gasped, her eyes widening in terror as she struggled to break the cruel grip. But the Goth girl was too strong, and had all the leverage.

"Now you can just rest for awhile, Narusegawa. And when you wake up again, think long and hard on what you've done to my brother – and what I'll do to _you_ if it should ever happen again."

It was over in a matter of seconds. With the flow of blood cut off to her frantic brain by the pressure that Kanako was skillfully applying to her neck, Naru soon succumbed to the sleeper hold, slumping forward limply in Kanako's arms, out like a light.

Breathing heavily, the triumphant Kanako released her hold. Then, as she shifted her grip on the other girl, intending to pull Naru backwards to balance her in an upright position on the ground, she, totally by accident, groped the other girl. Both of Kanako's hands had slid underneath Naru's swelling breasts, both sets of slender fingers instinctively moving upwards to tightly cup the warm, pliable mounds. As Kanako realized what she had inadvertently done, her heart thumped loudly in her chest and she felt a strange rush of blood coursing through her head. Kanako's face reddened and she quickly relaxed her fingers from around Naru's bust, although she still kept the back of her now senseless adversary pressed tightly against her own upper body.

_Wha-? My heart felt strange when I accidentally grabbed her tits. And I felt her nipples go hard under my fingers, just then! What in the heck was that all about?_

The Goth girl stared thoughtfully from close range down at the slumbering face of her enemy, only inches away from her own. And as Kanako did so, an odd thought came unbidden to her mind…

There was no doubt that Narusegawa _was_ an extremely attractive young woman, Kanako reluctantly admitted to herself, her eyes roaming across the bruised, scratched face of the unconscious girl in her arms. Even beaten up as Naru now was, that much was obvious. And now that the message to leave _Oniichan_ alone had finally been drummed into her thick skull, Naru was both single and available once more…

_Bu-dump!_ Went her heart again; the physical jolt of what felt very much like excitement reverberating though her body. And at that second, for some inexplicable reason, Kanako felt her throat become dry and constricted, and her hot blood began pounding through her temples, as well. She felt faint, and…

…It was almost as if she was feeling _attracted_ to Naru…?

…_? What in the hell is wrong with me? Surely I can't be-? No, that's ridiculous! I don't care how good-looking Naru is - _Oniichan_ is the only one for me!_

Shaking her head, the frowning, thoroughly disturbed Kanako easily hoisted Naru's limp body back up over her shoulders again, and then turned to retrace her steps back to the rear entrance of the Hinata Apartments.

"I need my head examined, thinking something as crazy as that. Maybe Narusegawa hit me harder than I thought she had, and it's scrambled my brain?" she wondered out loud. "Ah, screw it!"

Once inside the ancient building, the Goth girl carried her dangling burden back up the rear stairway to the second floor. Such was her excellent physical condition – mainly due to having trained against Granny Hina nearly every morning for the last few months before returning to the Hinata Apartments – Kanako wasn't even breathing heavily when she reached the front hallway that led to her intended destination.

However, once she was standing back outside the room that Naru had shared with Keitaro ever since they had gotten married, Kanako came to a hesitant halt next to the sliding entrance door. She had just been struck by a disturbing thought.

_Why in the hell am I tempting fate by leaving Naru in _Oniichan's_ room, where something could easily happen between them again, despite my warning to that skank to steer well clear of him?_ Kanako silently berated herself, slapping her free hand against her forehead. _And _Oniichan_ and Mutsumi are probably still in there right now, as well. What am I – an idiot?_

No, she decided, thinking fast, it would be far better for her to dump Naru into a spare room as far away from _Oniichan's_ one as possible, and let the beaten ex-bride wake up in her own time there. Meanwhile, she would arrange to have Naru's belongings shifted out of the landlord's room and into her new, separate one, straight away.

With regards to exactly where Naru's new lodgings would be, moving the battered and bruised brunette back into her original room directly above Keitaro's one was _definitely_ out of the question. After Keitaro and Naru had gotten married, Kanako had moved into Naru's old room, herself. And she was damned if she was going to shift out again, just to let Naru regain easy access to her long suffering _Oniichan_ through the still unfixed hole in the floor!

_Crap! I'd best toss this repressed prude onto a couch in the common room for the moment, until I figure out where the fuck I'm going to move her to, _Kanako finally decided_. I know where I'd like to put Naru and her crappy stuff, but somehow I doubt Auntie Haruka will let me make her live in the rubbish dumpster out back, more's the pity!_

Reaching her new destination a few moments later, Kanako dropped the unconscious Naru down onto the nearest couch, gave her one final look of disdain, then turned and left the room.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Back in the present time, as Kyle the hornet darted upwards towards the rough-edged hole in the ceiling of Room 204, he got his first clear look into the gap between the old floorboards, and then abruptly air-braked into a hover. The still annoyed hornet had just realized that what at first sight had looked to be a convenient short cut to the room above, was actually a dead end.

For a couple of seconds, Kyle hovered thus, uncertain as to what best to do now. Then, on the spur of the moment, he decided that he might as well check out the hole, anyway. The new odor he was sensing was coming from that direction, after all. So, after alighting upside-down on the ceiling, Kyle carefully made his way to the jagged edge of the opening, where his observation as to the unsuitability of this route was confirmed. The passage he had hoped to use was completely blocked off across its entire width by a flat sheet of wood.

The frustrated insect was just about to drop his segmented, two-inch long body downwards into the air again, intending to find another, albeit much longer route to the third floor, when he happened to notice a dim, straight edged line of light at the far edge of the inconvenient obstruction. Furthermore, a wayward current of air was even now wafting through the hairline crack, carrying a fresh whiff of the new smell he had picked up to his sensitive receptors.

Just what was this new aroma, anyway, the_ suzumebachi_ wondered. It was definitely different from the one that had tempted him to fly inside the Hinata Apartments in the first place. However, some obscure essence of it seemed to be oddly similar to that first one…

Yes, this tantalizing odor definitely bore further investigation, Kyle resolved. Especially since the underpants with the food supply he had been investigating had mysteriously disappeared during his enforced momentary absence from the premises, along with their sore and sorry owner.

Having just routed one potential enemy, Kyle realized that he was now in a much braver mood than prior to his deadly stinger's most satisfactory encounter with the soft, white backside of his foolish human assailant. And, as he remembered the ease with which he had chased off the pair of randy giants, Kyle also began to wonder about the veracity of the warnings he had received from his fellow hornets, with regards to avoiding this particularly unpredictable biped species. Maybe these humans weren't nearly so dangerous as he had heard they were, after all?

…With the exception of the apron-wearing destroyer, of course, Kyle hurriedly reminded himself, feeling the familiar chill running up his back at the thought of being transformed into a splatter effect.

But the apron-wearing destroyer didn't live in this particular mountain-sized building, did it? And the 'den of doom' was a long way away from here, so…?

Feeling a renewed surge of self-confidence at his own just proven prowess, the pumped up Kyle decided to waste no more time with unproductive worrying. So he bravely crawled upwards through the small gap left between the rim of the splintery hole through the floorboards and the square plywood sheet that mostly blocked it off, to emerge into the vast, open expanse of Room 304…

…Where, after making his way up on top of a wooden box, upon which was seated a towering, 'Liddo-kun' plushy, Kyle stopped stock-still as he caught sight of something that he definitely _didn't_ see every day – or had _ever_ seen before, for that matter.

"_WTF?"_ he gasped. Or the hornet equivalent, thereof.

Considering the most unusual sight that met his gaze, the hornet's bug-eyed befuddlement was perfectly understandable. It wasn't so much that two probably dangerous - though undeniably attractive, from a male human's point of view - young women were in the room, stretched out on the unfurled futon right there in front of him, that was the source of Kyle's consternation, either.

No, it was what the pair was doing that caused the incredulous wasp to doubt the evidence of his gawking compound eyes. For Kyle couldn't help but notice that the girl with long, hazel-brunette hair and twin hair antennae, laying front-down on the bed beneath the annoyed-looking second girl, was obviously her prisoner. This observation was further borne out by the fact that the brunette was securely bound in a leather bondage harness, her shivering hands buckled securely in restraints behind her straining, sweat covered back, and with a gag of some sort wedged tightly in her mouth.

The second girl was kneeling alongside her captive, in an obvious position of supremacy. This dominant girl seemed to be slightly younger than the tied up one, with black hair, a ponytail, and a single hair antenna that curved up over the top of her head. She was dressed in a red vinyl leotard that clung to her slim, small-breasted, but still most attractive figure like a second skin. A pair of knee-high red boots graced her slender legs, and she was holding a brown leather strap in her clenched right hand…

Then the angry-looking upright girl shifted her position slightly, giving the giant hornet his first, revealing view of the almost glowing, pink and red stripes that criss-crossed the obviously extremely sore backside of the bound and helpless, almost totally nude, captive girl underneath her.

Not even a snail could have pushed its eyes further out on stalks than Kyle's were at that moment.

_...? What in the hell is going on in here?_

In order to clarify the circumstances behind these peculiarly painful (and kinky) goings-on in room 304, the sight of which was causing the totally speechless Kyle his quite understandable bewilderment, an explanatory time shift back to the previous week is once again necessary.

-:-:-:-:-:-

_Author's Note: _

_And that time shift will be happening far faster than this latest update, since I've already got about ninety percent of the next chapter done, as of right now._

_Happy New Year from the Doctor._


	3. Chapter 3

_Greetings! As promised, Chapter Three. I _think_ that I can squeeze this chapter in under a 'T' rating?_

_...Well, maybe not?_

_Anyway, if you like what you read, say so!_

_Onwards-!_

-:-:-:-:-:-

**LOVE HINA: FLIGHT OF THE HORNET  
**_**CHAPTER THREE**_

By Doctor-T and Major Mike Powell III

-:-:-:-:-:-

With regards to the very real possibility of their other friends also reacting adversely to the news that they were now a couple, events were soon to prove to the apprehensive Keitaro and Mutsumi that they had been worrying themselves sick about nothing. However, since he and Mutsumi didn't know that comforting fact at this particular moment in time, Keitaro took a precautionary measure before calling their impromptu meeting in the downstairs lobby with the remaining female residents. Once everyone had taken their seats on the comfortable couches, Keitaro wisely let Mutsumi speak first, and make the explanation to the Hinata girls as to just why he wasn't with Naru any more.

Once the turtle lady's tale had been told, to Keitaro and Mutsumi's astonishment and overwhelming relief, every single one of the other girls amazingly seemed to accept that the reality of Keitaro's split with Naru was in actuality her fault, not his. And in total contrast to the twitchy, sweating Keitaro's quite logical fear that Motoko would still cleave him in twain on the spot for his perceived crime against her friend, the incredibly dangerous kendo exponent further amazed him no-end by keeping her temper under control, and her lethal wooden _bokken_ tightly sheathed.

In explanation for Motoko's uncharacteristic behavior, having already heard Naru's version of how and why her still-fuming friend and Keitaro had split up, nothing that Mutsumi or Keitaro had just told them had come as a much of a surprise to the kendo girl, or to any of the other residents for that matter. Indeed, Motoko was secretly just as overjoyed as the other girls were that the unbelievably _not_-married-after-all couple seemed to have permanently called it quits. She realized all-too-well that if Keitaro and Naru really _had_ parted on irreconcilable terms, this happy state of affairs would give her a second, longed for chance to win the elusive heart of her so-far unobtainable landlord.

Unfortunately, Motoko's growing elation had only lasted for a few fleeting seconds - right up until she found out from Mutsumi that _she_ was now with Keitaro, which meant that he wasn't single again, after all.

At that most unwelcome and disheartening bit of news from the turtle lady, Motoko's spirits sunk like a stone and her faint smile at Keitaro's return vanished from her lips. To her chagrin, the kendo girl realized she had in all probability lost out on the man of her dreams yet again, and before she could even try to win him, this time around.

_Curse my luck! Not again? This just isn't fair!_ Her mind screamed out, as she fought to keep her face suitably expressionless in the face of her bitter disappointment.

Even more surprising to Keitaro than Motoko's lack of violent reaction to his life changing news, was the just as strange response from the other girls in the room. Once they had discovered what he had really been up to during the past week, not a single one of these other now just as disappointed potential suitors had even tried to get him to reconsider his choice of Mutsumi and go back to Naru. Not even her best friend, Kitsune, had attempted to get him and Naru to reconcile, even if Kit's effort would have been for appearances sake only.

But, upon reflection, it wasn't really hard for Keitaro to figure out the main reason behind the Hinata girls' lack of trying to get him to mend his differences with Naru. Since he already knew that each and every girl in front of him, without exception, secretly - or in some cases, not so secretly - still harbored the desire to win his love, for any of them to try to get him to kiss and make up with Naru would be hypocritical in the extreme. Furthermore, if they did actually succeed in saving his relationship with his ex-wife, in the process of doing so they would also be effectively sabotaging their own no-doubt already slim chances of winning him away from Mutsumi.

No, as Naru would soon discover, she was going to be all alone in her efforts to get Keitaro back, this time.

Speaking of Naru, she had woken up from Kanako's sleeper hold just a few minutes after Keitaro and Mutsumi's downstairs meeting with the other girls had concluded. As her memory came back with a rush and she recalled what had happened to her, first with Keitaro and Mutsumi, and then with Kanako, Naru felt the sudden chill of fear swamp her bruised and aching body like a wave of ice-cold water, chilling her to the bone.

_I've – I've lost Keitaro to Mutsumi! And then I lost my fight against Kanako, too! And on top of that, she ordered me to stay away from Keitaro from now on, as well…_

…_Oh, no, no, no! 'Sob!' What…what am I going to do…?_

Next second, Naru heard the distinctive tread of footsteps coming up the wooden stairs. Quickly the distressed girl rolled painfully up off the couch and onto her wobbly feet. Holding back her tears with an effort, Naru slunk off down the nearest hallway, intending to make for the bathroom to wash and tidy up her appearance as much as she was able to, before letting herself be seen by any of the other residents again.

_Kitsune! Kitsune will know what I should do,_ Naru consoled herself, her numbed mind grasping at that one ray of hope as she vanished unseen around the bend at the far end of the hallway, before the approaching person could make their appearance. _I'll fix myself up as much as I'm able to, stay out of that witch Kanako's way for the rest of today, and then go and talk to Kit tonight. Yeah! She'll be sure to know how to get Keitaro back!_

-:-:-:-:-:-

As planned, the heavyhearted ex-wife crept to Kitsune's room for some desperately needed advice later on that very night. Answering the soft knock on her door, the Fox girl's eyes opened wide for once at the somewhat less than normal state of her upset looking visitor's face. Then she quickly opened the door wide to allow her best friend to enter.

After self-consciously admitting to her _still_ open-eyed older friend just how and why she had gotten herself so visibly banged up in such a comprehensive fashion, Naru then swallowed what little remained of her severely dented pride and asked Kit for her help in winning Keitaro back.

Instead of answering straight away, Kitsune stayed silent for a few moments as she reflected on what Naru had just told her. Then she summed up Naru's pitiable situation in a nutshell to her hopeful looking visitor. But Kit Fox's reply was definitely _not_ what the sore and sorry Naru was expecting to hear from her best friend. Far from it, in fact.

"Tough luck, Naru. Ah'm afraid it's too late for regrets, now. Ya blew it, girl, by punching Keitaro out for nothin', once too often," Kit earnestly pointed out to the dumped, dejected young woman, trying hard to keep an, _'I told you so'_ tone out of her voice. "And tryin' to take your frustrations out on kooky, kung fu Kanako, of all people, was just plain dumb. Especially since, if y'all be honest with yahself for once, you'll see that ya ain't got no-one to blame for losing Keitaro but yahself."

"Yes, but-!" Naru began, her face showing her surprise at Kitsune's unanticipated answer, the startled young woman spreading her hands in futile appeal to her oldest friend.

Kit held up her own right hand to forestall Naru's pleas. "No, Ah'm sorry, Naru, but there's nothin' that Ah can do – or anyone else can, for that matter – to mend things for ya, after what's happened this time," she firmly declared. Then the fox girl's tone of voice changed to one of genuine sympathy for her deflated best friend, in whose eyes, tears were once again welling. "You'll just have'ta grin and bear it, Ah'm afraid, Kiddo. And Ah hate to be the one to tell you this, but…Ah don't reckon Kei's coming back to ya this time – not now, not ever – especially since he's hooked up with Turtly-girl and her rather impressive charms!"

That last bit did it. Naru's tears of despair and regret began to flow uncontrollably from both red eyes as if turned on by twin faucets.

"Look, Naru, Ah'm sorry it's come to this – Ah really am. But it'd be best for you to just accept it, Sweetie," Kit finished, quickly taking the now shivering, sobbing young woman into her arms to try to comfort her in her overwhelming grief. "Like you stupidly told Kei when ya lost it one time too many, and punched him out of ya life and into Mutsumi's more'n willing arms _- it's over."_

-:-:-:-:-:-

_It's over._

_Even though _Oniichan _isn't with Naru any more, now that Turtle girl beat me to him, my love for him has been all for naught._

_Or… has it? Have I really lost him again, or is there still a chance for me – for us to be happy together?_

_I have to know for sure…once and for all._

_And the only way to know that is for me to summon up my courage and – and actually ask. So, just do it, Kanako…!_

_So, here - 'gulp' - goes…!_

Those were the unhappy thoughts echoing through the mind of the downcast Goth girl as she knocked on the doorway to her brother's room, at about the same time as Naru was conversing with Kitsune. Kanako knew that Keitaro was currently alone in his room since Mutsumi was still working her shift down at the Hinata Tea Rooms. So, now was as good a time as any to clear the air once and for all between them in private.

By going to her brother's room to confess her love to him, Kanako knew all-too-well that she was desperately grasping at straws. But, as long as there was a chance for her dream to come true, no matter how small it may be, she had to try.

She had to know, once and for all, who was truly in Keitaro's heart.

Her, or Mutsumi.

Upon answering the knock, Keitaro was pleased enough to see his younger sister. He was in a much more positive mood now that his meeting with the residents that morning had gone so well. So, after Kanako had stammered out her request for a private word with him on a personal matter of great importance to her, the young landlord made a snap decision to talk to his sister right now - strike while the iron was hot, so to speak. With a nervous grin on his face because he was already pretty sure he knew what Kanako wanted to talk to him about, Keitaro duly invited Kanako into his room for a cup of milk tea and a chat.

As the siblings sat at Keitaro's study table, sipping at their piping hot beverages, Kanako hesitantly explained the purpose of her sudden visit. Her cheeks pink and eyes downcast, she shyly detailed once again her genuine love for him, finishing her impassioned confession with the following anxious question.

"So this is really what you want to do, _Oniichan?_ You really want to spend the rest of your life with Mutsumi, and not…me?"

Upon first seeing Kanako at his door, Keitaro had instinctively guessed that this very subject was the reason for her obviously pre-planned visit. And now he had been proved right. But the now sweating young landlord truly loved Mutsumi, so he knew what he had to do.

There was no easy way for Keitaro to do this, so he just came right out and said what was on his mind.

Keitaro sighed, his gaze lifting to meet his adopted sister's apprehensive eyes, the look he was giving her full of strength of purpose and determination to follow the new path to happiness he had chosen. Kanako's heart sank even more as she realized at that very second, her years-long battle for her beloved _Oniichan's_ love was from that moment on, over – and that she had won her battle against Naru, but lost the war.

And then, in final confirmation of her failure to achieve her life's desire, Keitaro spoke the words that Kanako had prayed that she would never hear.

"Yes. I'm sorry, Kanako. I know all too well that we're not related by blood, and we could legally get married and have a family if we so wished. And, make no mistake; I _do_ truly love you. But I just can't seem to see you as anything other than my little sister, which kinda puts a rather large damper on any – _ahem!_ – physical type relationship between us. And…well, I know that I love Mutsumi, and she definitely loves me in return." Keitaro spread his hands. "So, there you have it, I'm afraid. It just can't happen between us. Sorry."

Kanako let out an involuntary sniffle, and her eyesight blurred with sudden emotion as her worst fears were realized.

Her newly single _Oniichan_ had fallen in love with another girl, yet again, instead of with her.

Her dream of marrying Keitaro and running the Hinata Apartments with him as man and wife was really, truly over. For good.

Then the upset Goth girl shook her head and forced back her rising tears of soul-deep loss. Keitaro had made his decision as to the new love of his life, and like it or not, it wasn't to be her.

But every cloud has a silver lining of sorts, and Kanako's numbed mind realized that she at least could draw some small consolation from two very important things. One, her beloved _Oniichan_ had just admitted to her that he truly loved her. That was something to be very grateful for, at least. And two; thank god he wasn't stuck with Naru any more. He would be both happy _and_ safe with the happy-go-lucky Mutsumi.

"Okay, _Oniichan_. As much as it pains me to do so, I…have no choice but to accept your decision," Kanako forced herself to say, even though she had never felt more like dropping to her knees and begging him to reconsider in her entire life. Somehow she managed a sickly half-grin. "So, con-congratulations, I guess. And, as much as I wish it were I in Mutsumi's place, I must admit that Turtle girl's a much better choice for you than that skank, Naru, ever was – in _every_ possible way. Almost as good as I would have been for you. _Almost."_

"Yeah," Keitaro conceded, giving his bravely smiling sister a heartwarming grin of his own. "But, Kanako, surely I'm not the only person in the entire world worthy of your love. I'm sure there must be someone else, apart from me, you could be just as happy with?"

"Huh?" the Goth girl exclaimed, confusion on her face, having been taken aback by this sudden and unexpected twist in their conversation. "What…do you mean by that, _Oniichan?"_

"Well, I can't be the only person you have feelings for…can I?" Keitaro tentatively queried his sibling. "Is there no other special someone you are attracted to enough to – _um_ – go out with? I mean, date?" He smiled, and scratched at the back of his head in the way that he always had done when put on the spot. _"Ah-heh-heh!_ But only if you wanted to, and in your own time, of course?"

"Hmmm?" Kanako pursed her lips thoughtfully as she forced her brain to work along this new and so far unconsidered path. And then her eyebrows rose as she was struck by a sudden and most surprising realization.

"I'll always love you first and foremost, _Oniichan_," Kanako finally admitted, an odd look in her eyes. "But…well, you may even be right with what you've just suggested to me…maybe…?"

"I am? So there _is_ someone else you fancy, Kanako?" Keitaro asked, an unintentional trace of both surprise and disbelief in his voice, now suddenly _very_ interested in what his little sister was saying. "I had no idea! _Um_…who have you got in mind, if you don't mind me asking, that is?"

"Never you mind, _Oniichan,"_ Kanako responded in a strange tone, her expression unreadable once more. "But I think that I can solve a major problem for both of us at the same time. Kill two birds with one stone, as they say."

"_Huh?"_ Keitaro inquired, not failing to notice his sister's cheeks coloring again, for some unfathomable reason known only to her.

"You'll get to know all about this other person in good time," Kanako reassured her perplexed looking brother. "But only if what I suspect about a certain individual we both know, turns out to be true. Until then, I'm not saying any more."

-:-:-:-:-:-

After her beating at the hands of Kanako, Naru managed to force herself to keep away from Keitaro for all of one extremely long and exceedingly frustrating week. But old habits die hard, and even though she was frightened of Kanako, Naru knew that she would never forgive herself if she didn't even try again to talk some sense into her ex-husband, and get him to see the error of his ways, with regards to leaving her. And her promise made under duress to Kanako about not trying to lure Keitaro back to her, be damned.

With that thought in mind, Naru bided her time and carefully made her plans. She instinctively knew that her best chance of winning Keitaro back was to finally offer up to him what he had desperately desired for all of the past seven years, but had never experienced even once, not even on their wedding night – her super hot body.

Giving herself fully to Keitaro for sex would be a big step for her to do, but at this stage of the game, the very worried Naru figured that she had no choice in the matter. Not if she truly wanted to save her relationship with her husband-no-more – which she now knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she did.

So, on the Saturday afternoon one week after losing her fight against Kanako, in her dank basement room, the nervous young woman made her preparations for her mission. Having already showered earlier on that morning, Naru now changed into a very special set of extremely skimpy red lingerie, a _risqué_ outfit that was supposed to have been worn on her wedding night, but in reality had remained firmly at the bottom of her suitcase.

Naru already knew from previous experience that men considered her extremely beautiful, both in face and in body. And she also knew that with her magnificently shaped figure clad only in this matching pair of lace scanties, she was visually about as close to a perfect score of ten as it was possible to anyone to get. There was no possible way that any man – including Keitaro - would be able to resist her overwhelmingly desirable charms were she to appear in his room dressed like this, she optimistically told herself.

And in that, she was probably correct.

Doing her hair came next, followed by a carefully applied touch of makeup to help hide her still-healing bruises, and then perfumed body spray. Finally Naru subjected herself to another critical scrutiny in her full-length mirror. At last satisfied by the vision of loveliness that was glowing back at her, Naru donned her full-length gown and turned towards the door to her tiny room. As she did so, her eyes fell upon her 'Liddo-kun' plushy where it was sitting forlornly on a still heaped-up pile of her books.

"Sorry, Liddo-kun," Naru angrily growled out, hefting up the plushy and staring with disappointment at its cute, expressionless face. "I like you, but there's no-way that I can keep you here with me any more, since that traitor, Mutsumi, was the one who gave you to me. I'm taking you back to Keitaro's room, and he can give you back to Mutsumi for me! I don't want anything of hers any more, even you."

With that said, Naru then left her basement room toting her now unwanted toy, and warily began to make her way upstairs towards Keitaro's room on the second floor of the huge old apartment building.

Although Naru was understandably nervous about what she was about to attempt, she was also sure that it was perfectly safe for her to commence her seduction of the unsuspecting Keitaro today. And at this early hour of the afternoon, too. The reason for Naru's optimism was, before putting her plan into operation; she had made absolutely sure that the coast was clear for her to do so.

Firstly, Naru had seen with her own eyes, Kanako departing the premises to make a lengthy trip into town. Even better, according to the in/out board at reception, the Goth girl wasn't due to arrive back at the apartments until dinnertime tonight.

Secondly, with regards to any possible interference from the husband-stealing Mutsumi, Naru already knew from previous observation that this was the time her rival was scheduled to start her shift down at the Hinata Tea Rooms. Naru had also discovered that after Mutsumi had finished work later on tonight, the turtle girl would then be returning to her own apartment at her original place of lodging in Hinata Hot Springs, for once, instead of coming back up here to Keitaro's room. And that fitted into Naru's plans perfectly.

This fortuitous, lengthy absence of her two main enemies at the same time had given Naru her window of opportunity to seduce her former husband. And, after a taste of what he had been missing, the optimistic girl had talked herself into believing that Keitaro would quickly realize the error of his ways and make up with her, right then and there.

The anxious ex-wife had a second and just as important reason to carry out her daring plan as soon as she possibly could. To her distress, she had also found out that the turtle girl was intending to shift into Keitaro's room, to live permanently with him at the Hinata Apartments. The only reason that Mutsumi hadn't already done so was because her lease at her own apartment specified that she was required to give two week's notice before moving out.

However, when plotting out her bold scheme, Naru had failed to take the very real danger she would be in from Kanako, and her cat, Kuro, into proper account. And her underestimation of the cunning pair was to be her undoing.

Being naturally suspicious, Kanako didn't trust Naru's promise to leave her _Oniichan_ and Mutsumi alone from now on, one little bit. Consequently, Kuro had been assigned last weekend to keep a semi-permanent watch on the erratic honey brunette, and warned to be on the lookout for any suspicious behavior towards Keitaro that she might begin to exhibit. And to give Naru a convenient window of opportunity to reveal her true colors, Kanako had only pretended to leave the apartments on an errand after lunch. In reality, she and Kuro had anticipated that the jealous ex might take advantage of her absence to cause mischief, and so they had conspired to set a trap for Naru to blunder into.

At the exact same time as Naru had been spying on Kanako apparently leaving the Hinata Apartments to go into town, Kuro had been surreptitiously observing Naru, and he had taken note of her strange behavior. Once he had been sure of his facts, the huge-eared flying cat had glided down the side staircase to where Kanako was sitting at a table in the Hinata Tea Rooms, sipping at a cup of green tea and waiting patiently for his report.

After hearing what her cat had to say, Kanako frowned and banged her teacup down onto the tabletop. _"Damn!_ I knew it! I knew that Naru couldn't be trusted to keep her word! The second I turn my back, she's plotting to be all over _Oniichan_ like a rash!"

"Okay, I'll phone _Oniichan_ in his room, right now, and get him to come down here to the Tea Rooms for a while. I know that Auntie Haruka wants to talk to him, anyway, so this is as good a time as any for it to happen. Kuro, you go back up there and keep an eye on Naru. I'll be up directly, and if she's about to attempt what I think she is, I'm going to make that skank wish that she'd never been born!"

-:-:-:-:-:-

Back up at the Hinata Apartments, thanks to Kanako's phone call to her brother, Naru was about to strike an unanticipated hitch in her plan. She had been sure that Keitaro would be in his room, having heard from him at lunchtime that he would be in there for the remainder of the afternoon. But when she arrived outside the door to her hopefully soon-to-be-love-nest destination and knocked on it, he hadn't answered her summons. Even after several more increasingly loud and impatient knocks, the door remained shut, with no sound of movement in the room beyond it. This total lack of any response put paid to the now thoroughly frustrated Naru's spur-of-the-moment theory that the dork of her desire might have fallen asleep in there, and so not heard her first attempts to attract his attention.

Once that she was sure that Keitaro wasn't in his room, after all, the disappointed young woman bit her lip as she tried to decide exactly what she should do next.

"_Oh, dammit,"_ she finally decided, the light of tenacity appearing in her eyes. "I've come this far, and I'm not about to give up now. Maybe the idiot just popped out for a couple of minutes to use the bathroom, or something? I'm going in there to wait for him!"

So, after a quick look up and down the hallway, Naru opened the sliding door and stepped quickly into the room, closing the door carefully behind her. Inside, it was as she had suspected. The landlord's room was empty of her desired target.

"_Crap!_ I knew it. Oh, well? At least this gives me time to unfold his futon and get myself ready for when he comes back."

The scheming young woman walked across the hardwood floor, her mind busily working on the best way to go about the seduction of her beloved and much missed, but still clueless, ex-partner.

_Hmmm? I think I'll make up the futon, and then lie down on it with my gown half-undone and my legs fully exposed. And maybe I should remove my bra, and leave one of my breasts showing, too…? 'Giggle!' That way Keitaro can see what I've got to offer, without showing him too much right at the start._

_Yeah! And if I pretend to be asleep when Keitaro arrives, that'll avoid the possibility of the sight of me maybe scaring him away before I can even talk to him. If he thinks that I'm asleep, he's sure to come right up to me for a closer look at my-GAAAK!_

From the hole in the ceiling above the totally unsuspecting Naru, without any warning whatsoever, a loop of strong rope had suddenly dropped down over her head, to tighten around her slender throat! Next second, a powerful heave hauled her feet completely off the floor, heaving her near nude body dangling helplessly in mid-air!

Her breath completely cut off, the strangling girl began to thrash in panic as she felt herself being pulled even higher into the air, being reeled in like a fish up towards the opening in the ceiling above her.

Once the choking, writhing Naru had been dragged completely through the hole in the floor of Room 304, Kanako flung her half-throttled captive headlong down onto the hard wooden boards. Next she banged the plywood sheet back down over the opening, followed by the wooden box and the 'Liddo-kun' plushy that Naru had been carrying with her. Then the Goth girl angrily turned to face the errant older girl, who was gasping for air at her feet as she struggled to loosen the suffocating grip of the noose from around her neck.

Finally Naru succeeded with her life saving efforts. After flinging the rope away, she then collapsed backwards onto the unyielding floor, her well-endowed chest heaving as she fought to regain her breath. Only after this essential task was completed did Naru finally manage to focus her eyes on the orchestrater of her torment.

"K-Kanako! What the hell are you do-?" She began to shout.

THWAK!

A split-second after Kanako's right fist had connected violently with her jaw, Naru's head bounced off the hardwood floor, the sudden double impact nearly rendering the ex-bride senseless, right then and there.

"_Shut the fuck up, Naru!"_ Kanako barked, stepping forward a pace and drawing back her right fist for a second blow. "Piss me off any more than you already have, and they'll be dragging your black-and-blue ass out of the _onsen_ by _what remains_ of your hair!"

Naru's bruised mouth instantly snapped shut, her previous sense of outrage instantly replaced by a surge of terror at the deadly look in Kanako's smoldering eyes. Knowing full well that the obviously furious Kanako wouldn't hesitate to carry out her threat, the dazed Naru knew better than to aggravate the Goth girl any further. So she cowered down into a submissive pose and spread her hands in unconditional surrender.

"No, Kanako, don't! I – I give up," the now frightened young woman hastily assured her sinister ex-sister-in-law. "Just don't hit me again – _please?"_

"Why the hell shouldn't I?" Kanako countered. "I warned you to stay away from my _Oniichan,_ Naru. I warned you, and I also told you what would happen to you if you didn't. And now that you've stupidly seen fit to ignore my warning, give me one good reason why I shouldn't put you through the wall in the exact same way as you used to do to my poor brother!"

"Be-because I'm sorry! And I promise that I won't do it again," Naru wailed, clutching her hands together in desperate appeal.

"Screw that," the furious Kanako told the pale and trembling girl, yanking Naru roughly back up onto her unsteady feet by her hair. "Even if I believed that blatant lie from you, I still owe you big for all of the trouble that you've caused _Oniichan_, our family, and myself. And it's finally time for you to pay the piper. Now, _strip!"_

"S-strip?" Naru gasped, the sudden weakness in her legs causing her to stagger slightly before she managed to gain her balance. "You mean, take off my robe, and - and-?"

"You heard me, you obsessive bitch. Take every last stitch of your clothes off, including that slutty lingerie, _now!_ Or I'll tear them off you!"

"Oh-okay…"

Once the blushing, shivering Naru had done as ordered, and her still bruised body was completely naked to the interested gaze of her captor, the Goth girl turned her apprehensive but submissive captive around in a full circle so that she could properly check out her prize. Knowing all-too-well there was nothing at all that Kanako could now not see, Naru's embarrassed face glowed like a red neon sign under the searching scrutiny of her younger but stronger, and now, far more dominant new mistress.

_Huh. Check out those bruises. Naru's still pretty marked up from our fight the other day_, Kanako told herself in silent satisfaction, feeling the other girl wince as her slender fingers inadvertently pressed down upon one of the purple patches on the smooth skin of her _Oniichan's_ ex_. Serves her right! I hope they hurt like hell!_

Wasting no more time, the Goth girl forced her tense and trembling, though unresisting, captive down knees-first onto her own already unrolled futon. Then the for-once grinning hostess slipped out of her gothic style clothes, to reveal the bright red, vinyl and leather dominatrix outfit she was wearing underneath her usual black and white garb. As she disrobed, Kanako allowed herself a momentary chuckle. Never let it be said that she didn't dress properly for the occasion.

A moment later, Kanako knelt onto the bed at Naru's shivering side. As she did so, Kanako took note, with some amusement, of Naru's totally involuntary gasp of terrified fascination as her nude prisoner finally noticed just what particular esoteric items her captor had brought along to use on her.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Mere moments after Kanako had hauled the vainly struggling Naru up through the hole in the ceiling, and closed the gap between the two rooms with the plywood sheet again, Keitaro had arrived back at his room, this time accompanied by Mutsumi. Having received Kanako's phone call about Aunt Haruka wanting to talk to him, he had been on his way down to the Tea Rooms to meet up with her, when, by a stroke of good fortune, he had run into his aunt in the Hinata Apartments lobby, instead. So Keitaro wasn't to be away from his room for nearly as long as Kanako had thought he would be – but the Goth girl had still been granted just enough time for her to snatch Naru out of there before he and Mutsumi had returned.

As to why Mutsumi was now with Keitaro, instead of on her way to work, Haruka was at a loose end that day, so she had offered to cover Mutsumi's shift for her up until dinnertime. So, back in the landlord's room and with time to spare, the two lovers had decided to make the most of their fortuitous opportunity to spend some quality time together, and get it on. And it was at the very moment that their lovemaking was commencing that Kyle the Asian Giant Hornet, on his quest to track down the elusive smell that had lured him inside the building, had arrived at the x-rated scene.

After the ensuing fiasco involving the underpants, the smelly sock, and Keitaro's soft and pale right buttock vs. the _suzumebachi_'s half-inch long stinger, Kyle had now made his way up through the hole in the ceiling into Room 304, on the third floor of the Hinata Apartments. Which brings us all right up to date.

-:-:-:-:-:-

As luck would have it, Aunt Haruka was strolling past the door to Kanako's room just as the Goth girl was strapping the totally naked, wide-eyed and profusely sweating Naru tightly into a black leather bondage harness. As Naru's weak protestations suddenly cut out in mid-sentence as the ball of a black rubber gag was forced into her mouth, for a second, Haruka – having heard Naru's pleas, and knowing full well what was about to happen to her nephew's ex – momentarily thought about entering the room to rescue Naru from her soon-to-be whip-wielding niece. But only for a second she stood thus, before shaking her head and continuing on down the hallway.

"No," Haruka told herself, a grim look of satisfaction on her youthful face as she visualized the pain-laced pleasure the helpless Tokyo U graduate was about to go through. "Whatever happens to Naru now from Kanako, Naru deserves it for treating Kei-kun like crap for all of those years. She made her bed, now let her lie in it."

"Besides, the fact that she and Keitaro aren't really married isn't his fault, like she had the cheek to claim," she reminded herself, turning the far corner of the corridor just as the faint _'crack'_ of a thick leather strap impacting on a pair of well-rounded buttocks reached her ears. Haruka winced at the distinctive sound, nodded, then added, "It sounds like Kanako also remembers when her and I overheard Naru talking to Kei-kun before their wedding. As I recall, Naru said at the time that _she_ was going to file their Marriage papers at the registry office after the ceremony, not him!"

-:-:-:-:-:-

At that very moment, back in Kanako's room, right in front of Kyle the hornet's disbelieving eyes, Naru's punishment was now well and truly under way. With regards to Naru's bare butt, the Goth girl was getting into the swing of things – _literally._

"…And ten!" Kanako counted with relish, her right hand whipping downwards yet again.

'_Craak!'_

'_MMMmmmnh!"_ Naru blubbered tearfully, jerking helplessly in her bonds from the latest in the series of cruel stings from the skillfully wielded lash.

"Don't worry, Narusegawa. I'm not going to break the lovely smooth skin on that tasty, rounded, apple ass of yours - not _this_ time, anyway," Kanako then reassured her squirming captive, momentarily lowering the leather strap she had been gleefully swinging across the quivering, red-streaked buttocks of the securely bound ex-bride. "But if you disobey my orders again with regards to staying away from my brother and Turtle-Idiot, then all bets are off. _Especially _any more of these pitiful attempts by you to seduce him. Got that, you twin-antennaed slut?"

"_Mmmmh!"_

"_Heh_. Good. Now you just lie there and take the rest of your punishment for your transgression. We _both_ know that you deserve it for breaking your word to me, _and_ for all of the previous years of suffering and heartbreak that you put my brother through."

Not that the tearful and very sorry Naru had any choice but to do just that, considering her current well-bound and helpless position.

"_Heh, heh_. At long last he's rid of you," the young dominatrix gloated to her prisoner, idly twirling the leather strap in her hand as she sized up her ample target. "_Oniichan_ can be pretty dense at times, I admit, but he's finally come to his senses as far as you're concerned! And even though I wish that he'd run to me for love, instead of to our unworthy turtle idiot relative, Mutsumi, the very fact that he's no longer with you makes my disappointment at his choice of new girlfriend quite bearable – for the moment, anyway. So, to properly celebrate this momentous occasion – your ass is mine!"

'_Craak!'_

"_MMMmph!"_

Finally, after nine more stripes across Naru's butt, the punishment session was over. Lowering her well-used strap, Kanako first tucked it carefully away into its pouch on her right hip. Then she leaned forward to release the blubbering, weakly moving ex-bride from her restraints, before unbuckling and removing the bondage harness from Naru's extremely shapely, sweat covered body.

"And let this be the final lesson that I ever have to give you, Narusegawa," the skilled young dominatrix growled out in a blunt warning to the older girl as she lastly removed the gag from her disobedient prisoner's mouth. "Don't you dare try to seduce my brother away from Turtle Idiot ever again! Like I said just before, if I catch you attempting anything like this for a second time, by the time that I've finished with you, they'll have to superglue whatever remains of your ass back onto you in Hinata hospital! You got that?"

"'_Sniff!'_ Y-yes, Kanako – _'sniffle!'_ _I'm sorry!_ I won't do it ever again, _I swear!_ I won't – I won't…!"

"_Good_. Now get dressed, and haul your juicy, tomato-red ass the hell out of my room! _Now!"_

Jumping to her feet, the wincing, sobbing Naru snatched up her robe and skimpy underwear. Then she turned and stumbled in panic and agony out through the doorway of what was once her own room, without even taking the time to redress herself first.

"And that takes care of that," Kanako told herself with a great deal of satisfaction, watching the door sliding shut with a loud bang behind her fleeing, still totally nude adversary. "Not even Naru is going to – _huh?"_

_What in the hell is that huge wasp doing in here? Heh! If I'd noticed it sooner, I'd have grabbed it and shoved it right up Naru's tight butt-hole as an added emphasis to my warning. Still, it's a little too late to do that, now, and I can't just let the damn thing buzz around in here, can I…?_

_Uh-oh? _Kyle thought, realizing that he had been spotted, and uneasily watching the right hand of the red leotard girl reaching once more for her holstered strap. _Time to amscray, methinks?_

Luckily for Kyle, the door that Naru had slammed shut behind her had rebounded slightly from its impact with the doorframe, leaving a small gap that provided him with a handy means of exit. As it was, he only just made it out into the hallway in time. As Kanako struck, the skillfully wielded strap carved a splinter of wood from the doorframe, both lethal objects missing his darting body by less than an inch as he powered out of the room and into the corridor beyond it.

'_Phew!' That was close!_ The panicky hornet gasped out as he sped off at high speed down the wide-open spaces of the passageway. _Too close! Maybe I'd best get outta this madhouse while I still can?_

-:-:-:-:-:-

_Author's Note:_

_And you'll all find out whether Kyle can or not, next week. As I have completely finished writing this story, I'm going to be posting new chapters every week, including the special chapter in its correct chronological order. And right after the last chapter of this story, I'm then posting the first chapter of 'Love Hina: Flight of the Hornet - The Aftermath', until it has also finished its run, one chapter a week._

_As always, comments are appreciated._

_Enjoy!_


	4. Chapter 4

_Hi, everyone. As promised - Chapter Four._

_And thanks for the positive reviews. After the amount of time I've spent on writing this series over the last few months, and on my other stories as well, I certainly appreciate each and every one of them._

_And now, on with the story:_

-:-:-:-:-:-

**LOVE HINA: FLIGHT OF THE HORNET  
**_**CHAPTER FOUR**_

By Doctor-T and Major Mike Powell III

-:-:-:-:-:-

As the alarmed Kyle tried to make up his mind whether to flee the premises or not, we must now return to the current whereabouts of the severely stung young landlord of Kyle's afore-mentioned madhouse. Which location of said protagonist was now down on the first floor of the Hinata Apartments. To be precise, he was in the women's changing room, next to the entrance leading out to the _onsen_.

There in the seclusion and privacy of the changing room, the very sore Keitaro Urashima was at that very moment laying on his stomach on a towel covered bench, his pants and underwear folded in a neat pile next to him. As to what he was doing in the women's changing room without any pants on – which would have been a suicidal thing for him to have done back when he first arrived at the Hinata Apartments – this time Keitaro had a perfectly valid reason for his somewhat strange actions. For the grimacing young landlord was right in the middle of having his wounded butt and pride being expertly tended to by the very capable – and most importantly at that moment - very _gentle_ hands of one Miss Mutsumi Otohime.

Before accompanying Keitaro downstairs to get the first aid kit from reception, and then taking him in here to treat his exceedingly painful hornet sting, Mutsumi had thoughtfully dressed in a very special outfit for the occasion. As they hurriedly put their clothes back on – very gingerly in the case of Keitaro's pants - she had quickly donned directly over her previously naked body, the very short and most revealing white, cosplay nurse outfit she had borrowed from Kitsune a couple of days ago, for reasons that shall be left up to the imagination. And the fact that the _very_ short outfit clung to her shapely body like a second skin, as well as being unbuttoned down to an indecently low level _below_ her swelling bust, served to help keep Keitaro's mind off the pain he was in almost as well as any normal painkiller would have done.

After washing the angry, red swelling in the middle of Keitaro's right buttock with cold water and antiseptic soap, Mutsumi had just put an ice pack onto it, and the squawk that he had let out as the freezing cold bag touched the incredibly tender spot was fit to wake the dead.

"_Oh, my?_ Would you like another ibuprofen tablet for the pain, Kei-kun," Mutsumi asked him with concern. "You've only taken one 200 mg tablet so far, so you're allowed one more right now if you need it for your 'ouchie'."

"That…would be nice," Keitaro gritted through clenched teeth, sweatdrops dotting his head like he had been caught in a shower of rain. "Tell me again what this ice pack does to help me, or is this just some new, exquisite form of torture that Naru bribed you to do to me?"

"Oh? _Fu, fu, fu._ Well, that stays on your poor sore bottom for fifteen minutes," the turtle girl informed her discomforted boyfriend as she gave him a second ibuprofen tablet and a glass of water to take it with. "The ice will help to reduce the swelling and stop the burning sensation. Then I'm going to apply a paste of baking soda and water to help counteract the venom in your wound, before covering it with a nice, clean, sterile cloth and a bandage."

"And with regards to getting rid of the burning sensation, the sooner the better," Keitaro heartily agreed, after quickly gulping down the tablet and draining the glass of water. He handed the empty glass back to Mutsumi, and then curiosity entered his tone as he asked, "So, Mutsumi, tell me. How do you know all this about first aid for insect stings, anyway?"

"I'm a Tokyo University graduate, just like you are, Kei-kun," Mutsumi informed him with a smile. "I know a lot of things!" She laughed, her twin hair antennae bobbing merrily, and then added, "Besides, back home on Okinawa, because we live on a small island off the mainland and I have such a large family, my mother is an expert on home remedies. She taught me how to treat hornet stings way back when I was little!"

"Oh, okay. That makes sense, I guess." Keitaro smiled back at his devoted nurse, then he reached out with his left hand again and grasped Mutsumi's near one reassuringly. "Have I thanked you yet for looking after me right now? I really appreciate it, Mutsumi."

Mutsumi blushed slightly, and squeezed his hand back. "Don't mention it, Kei-kun," she happily replied. "This is nothing that any good girlfriend wouldn't do for her beloved man. I love you, and I want to service you in all ways from now on."

Now it was Keitaro's turn to go red, and not only because of her rather daring choice of words. Mutsumi had leant forward as she was talking, and it was blatantly obvious from the amount of cleavage she was showing that she hadn't bothered to put her underwear back on under the short nurse outfit before they had left the landlord's room.

"_Urm!_ Thanks," he managed to get out, fighting to avert his eyes from her most impressive charms back to her face again. "I love you, too."

"Say, Kei-kun? When we were upstairs before in your room, did you hear anything unusual coming from somewhere above us, just before you got stung," Mutsumi then asked him, a thoughtful expression appearing on her face at the puzzling memory.

Keitaro propped himself up on one elbow, a quizzical look on his own bespectacled face at the surprising question from his girlfriend.

"Hmm? I really don't remember," he mused. "What exactly did you hear, anyway?"

"I thought that I heard someone yelling, and then a faint cracking sound coming at maybe ten second intervals after that. I wonder what it could have been?"

Keitaro scratched his head, a frown appearing on his forehead. "Beats me? And the sound was coming from above us, you say? That's Kanako's room, so maybe she was responsible? I dunno."

"Ah, well? It probably wasn't anything important," the turtle lady remarked, rising up from her seat to check on the swelling on her companion's butt. She lifted up the ice pack and peered down at his wound. "Hmm? The redness seems to be subsiding a bit already. Ten minutes to go, then I'll dry the spot and apply the baking soda paste. How are you feeling right now, Kei-kun?"

"Ah? _Aheh-heh!_ Well, I can only feel my left buttock, the other one is totally numb," Keitaro admitted, a little embarrassed at what he was saying to his most attractive companion. "Except for a sharp stinging right in the middle of it, that is."

"So the stinging isn't feeling any worse? And you're not feeling dizzy, or short of breath, or anything like that?" Mutsumi wanted to know, a serious look appearing on her face for once. "It's really important that you tell me if you do have any of those symptoms, Kei-kun."

"No, I'm actually feeling a lot better," Keitaro told her, gratitude in his voice, causing Mutsumi to sigh with relief and relax again. "The sting doesn't hurt nearly so much now as it did before, either."

"That's great, Kei-kun! Well, now we just have to wait a few more minutes until I can dry the sting site off, put the paste onto it, and then I'll bandage it up and we'll be all done."

"'_Phew!'_ Yeah, I'll certainly be glad when the pain from this sting is all gone." Keitaro grinned ruefully from behind his glasses at the beautiful, cheerful, watermelon-loving nurse imposter whom was taking care of him. "Darned hornet! I wonder why it came into my room in the first place?"

"Who knows? Maybe it just has _good taste in men_, like I have?"

"Oh, very funny! And it didn't hug me, it _stung_ me, remember?"

Mutsumi smiled mischievously down at her prone, chuckling partner. Then her hands moved up to the nearly totally unbuttoned front of her tight and revealing nurse costume. Pulling the top, right side corner of it back, she fully exposed her huge, delicious, big-nippled right breast to the surprised but lascivious gaze of her suddenly wide-eyed and panting boyfriend.

"In the meantime, if you do get bored with the waiting, Kei-kun, you can always play with this?" she giggled playfully. _"Fu, fu, fu!"_

An incredibly good suggestion that Keitaro took up with alacrity.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Twelve minutes later, Mutsumi straightened back up from Keitaro's fully treated, freshly bandaged bottom, a satisfied look - for several reasons, not just the obvious one - on her still slightly flushed face.

"There you go, I've finished. _Fu, fu, fu._ So, how does it feel?"

"_Ah-heh, heh?_ Well, actually, Mutsumi, the sting still hurts like heck," the ex-ronin truthfully replied, directing a sheepish grin back over his shoulder at the smiling turtle lady. "But it's one hundred percent better than what it was before, though. Thank you! Still, even after the great job you've just finished doing on it for me, I probably won't be able to sit down for a week!"

Little did Keitaro know that he wasn't the only one on the premises who wouldn't be able to do that particular action. As the teary eyed Naru, now curled up on her side in her dank basement room, holding a big bag of crushed ice gingerly against her own well-smacked bottom, could have at that moment testified.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Despite his original intention to flee this den of iniquity post-haste, in the end Kyle had remained inside the huge old building. Quickly realizing that the red-dressed psycho with the lethal strap wasn't going to pursue him, as he understandably feared she might, the very relieved Kyle quickly flew up to land upside down on the ceiling of the hallway. After a spell up there to calm himself down and to think about what best to do now, the on-edge hornet had finally talked himself into continuing on with his exploration of the vast human hive he had entered.

_But with a lot of extra caution from now on_, Kyle promised himself as he dropped down into the air again, and then continued on his way down the lengthy third-floor corridor in front of him.

As he hummed past the slightly ajar door to Room 302, the now extra-wary giant hornet abruptly air braked, then alighted on the recently waxed wooden floor outside the entrance. A strange, sweet odor drifting on a current of warm air out of the shadowy room had suddenly grabbed his attention. This new smell was vastly different from the original one that had first attracted him into the Hinata Apartments, but it bore investigation, all the same – provided that he was absolutely sure it was safe for him to do so, of course.

Kyle quickly scurried across the polished floorboards to the partial concealment of the wooden doorframe. After taking a deep breath, he warily peeked one compound eye around its vertical edge to carefully scrutinize the dim interior beyond for any signs of lurking danger before deciding whether or not to enter.

Inside the darkened, spartanly furnished room – poorly lit at this time because the window drapes had been drawn shut against the intense heat of the afternoon sun - all seemed to be quiet and still. Even better, as far as Kyle could tell, the shadowy room appeared to be completely empty of any dangerously unpredictable humans. And the only sounds he could currently hear were those from the ubiquitous cicadas chirping in the trees outside the huge building.

"_Phew!_ So far, so good," he muttered to himself. "I don't see too well in deep shade like this, but there's certainly nothing stirring in there at the moment."

Once he was one hundred percent sure that the coast really was clear, Kyle let out a second sigh of relief. Then he began inching his way into the cavernous interior of the room, backtracking the scent trail to its as yet unknown origin - only to freeze stock-still with alarm as the sound of a loud yawn suddenly broke the silence!

'_Gulp!' So there is a human in here, after all, _the immediately apprehensive hornet thought, the insect equivalent of chills now racing up his chitin-covered back as he crouched down against the floor in an effort the become as inconspicuous as possible._ And not all that far away, either! But where did that sound come from? I can't see anyone in here!_

During his careful scrutiny of the darkened premises prior to entry, Kyle had previously noticed an already made up, though disheveled futon, which was spread out on the polished floor in the middle of the room. He had previously thought it to be unoccupied, but next second, right in front of Kyle's startled eyes, the mounded up duvet covering the bed began to stir. Then a bare arm flopped out from under the bedcover, striking the floor with a loud thump and nearly scaring the frightened hornet out of his already highly strung wits!

"'_Hic!' _Oh, Kami-sama, my head hurts…_"_ A feminine voice loudly moaned out a couple of seconds later. "Damn that _sake_ of Kitsune's! I knew that I shouldn't have imbibed so much of it before we went back to bed after lunch. _Ohhhh…!"_

"Heh. What's that, Motoko?" a second female voice with a noticeable Kansan accent then spoke up from the exact same location as the first speaker. "Hey, are ya feelin' all right, Sugah?"

"'_Groan!' _No, I'm not, Kitsune," the first hidden person rebuked the other. "I have a headache, and my throat feels all dry. I think that we both should drink in moderation from now on, if at all."

"That's funny," the second voice laughed. "Ah feel just fine! Don't worry, Motoko, now that we're together, sore heads for you from drinkin' will soon become a thing of the past. Ah'll have ya knockin' liquor back like a pro in no time."

"That's just what I'm worried about. _Oh?_ Excuse me for a moment. There's something that I have to do, right now."

"What? You're not gonna throw up, are ya? Or are ya just gonna hit the can?"

"Neither! We accidentally left my door slightly open after lunch, and I'm just going to get up and shut it."

"Huh? Is that all," the second girl replied in an unconcerned tone. "Don't worry about it, gal."

"But someone might come along and see us through the gap," the first girl protested as she rolled over and sat up in the unmade bed, her long, straight, black hair falling forward over the eye-catching curves of her bare shoulders and well-formed breasts as she did so. "It is the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday, after all. Other people _are_ around, you know."

"So? Let them! It's about time that the others found out about us, anyway. We can't keep it a secret from them forever, can we?"

"Yes…I _do_ know that," the black haired girl who had spoken first grudgingly conceded to her nonchalant companion. "But I would rather break the news that you and I are now partners to our friends on our terms, not have them suddenly stumble upon us in bed together, and discover our secret that way!"

Kitsune sat up as well, her voluptuous bare breasts bouncing gently as she moved, and then waved a languid hand at her anxious lover. "Ah, maybe you're right," she remarked. "Go right ahead and close the door, Sugah, if it'll make you feel better. And pass me that unopened _sake_ bottle over by the wall there while you're at it, willya?"

"What? You _still_ want more _sake_?" Motoko rebuked the older girl with disbelief in her stern voice as she rose gracefully up out of the bedcovers; her tall, lithe, totally nude body now fully exposed to the facetted eyes of the cowering hornet. "Don't you think that you've had quite enough already, what with last night, and then your session after lunch, just before we went back to bed?"

"Naw. And this one's only a 720 mL bottle, so that's only four drinks worth for mah _choko_ here." Kit gestured at Motoko with her empty cup. "It'll be gone in no time."

"But-?" the exasperated Motoko started to protest.

"And you shouldn't be complainin', either," Kit giggled, a twinkle appearing in her half-open eyes. "It puts me in the mood for _you-know-what_." She beckoned playfully at the kendo girl. "So hurry up with mah liquor, and get back under the sheets. _Heh-heh-heh!_ Once Ah've had a couple of shots, Ah'll do somethin' to you that'll make ya forget all about ya sore head _and_ mah drinkin', see if Ah don't!"

Motoko's face went bright red at the inference. Snatching up the bottle of rice wine, she passed it to her chuckling girlfriend. Then the now flustered girl slipped back under the duvet again, without even closing the door to her room, as she had originally intended to do.

"That's the spirit," Kit encouraged the glowering kendo girl, pouring _sake_ into her cup, and then she filled Motoko's own _choko,_ as well. "Here, d'ya want some, too, gal?"

"Oh, very well," Motoko reluctantly agreed, fixing the older girl with a stern look. "But just this one bottle, Kitsune. I don't want either of us to pass out again, not when I've got to get up soon to study, and you've got to get ready for your dinner shift at the Tea Rooms. You're the rostered manager tonight, so you've got to be there early!"

"Ah know, Ah know," Kit stated dismissively, then raised her cup up to her lips and drained it in one go. "Ahhh! That hit the spot! Drink up, Sugah."

"I am," Motoko growled, then sipped at her own drink in a far more decorous manner. "When I drink, I prefer to savor the taste of _sake_, not gulp it down like tap water."

"To each their own, Sweetie. Ah reckon 'shots' are the way to go."

"I'll give you a shot, all right, if I have to play second fiddle to your drinking for the rest of the day," Motoko grumbled, placing her cup back down on the floor and then slumping down backwards on the rumpled futon. "I've already got a headache from imbibing too much of it before we fell asleep, and wasted most of this sunny afternoon."

"Oh, what was that? Are ya feelin' a little neglected, gal?" Kit coyly inquired, giving the sulking Motoko a wink. "Don't worry, Ah got plenty of time to drink _and_ to give you a little sugar, Sugah!" Sliding her empty _choko_ out of the way, Kitsune then leaned down over the prone kendo girl, taking note of Motoko's sharp intake of breath and watching her eyes widen and face turn pink as she realized just what was going to happen next.

_Kitsune's so bold! I wish that I could be more like her in that regard…OH?_

The fingers of Kitsune's left hand closed over Motoko's right breast and gently began to squeeze the tempting, nippled mound, just as her right hand slid down and under the younger girl's neck. And then the grinning Kit Fox lifted her lover's head upwards, their lips meeting passionately in a mid-air kiss.

"Ah, Kitsune - _mmmmmmm!"_

Motoko closed her eyes, quickly reached up and wrapped her arms around Kitsune's bare shoulders, and then drew the nude, big-breasted older girl down on top of her own slender, naked body.

By now, the nervous _suzumebachi_ had worked out exactly where in this room the fascinating odor he had sensed earlier on was coming from. Well, the current source of it, anyway. And once again, his curiosity and eagerness to taste-test a sample of the sweet smelling mystery substance overrode his natural caution about being in such close proximity to humans.

Seeing that the two girls were now fully occupied with what they were doing to each other, Kyle took the opportunity to scuttle unnoticed across the intervening stretch of floor, and then climb up the slippery side of the now half-empty bottle that Kitsune had placed next to her side of the futon. Reaching the rim of the circular hole at the top of the glass container, he leaned forward and gingerly inhaled the strong smell drifting up from the transparent liquid within.

_Whew! Just what is this stuff in here? It's smells strong, but good. Whoo! This odor is making me feel a little dizzy…_

'_Sniff – sniff!' Ahhh! Yesh, it's p-pretty shtrong, all righty. Yup!_

_Le-lemme just shee if I can – umph! If I can squeeze inside and have a little sip of this stuff – Whoopsie!_

'PLOP!'

"_Whoah! 'Glub!' Dammit, _I fell in!" Kyle spluttered, fighting to pull himself back up out of the strange liquid he had just tumbled into. "This wet glass is slipperier than I thought it would be _–'gasp!' 'Blub!' _

Just as Kyle's gasping head splashed back up through the surface of the _sake _for the second time, from her position on top of Motoko, Kitsune reached across and picked up the bottle again, intending to pour herself yet another cupful of the now hornet-flavored liquor.

"Hold on a second, Sugah," she cheerily informed her very impatient looking companion. "Ah'll just finish this last bit off, and then we can get right into it – _heey?_ _What the heck?"  
_

"_Waaaaahh! There's a huge bee in mah sake,"_ the outraged Kitsune then yelled out, shaking the half-full bottle furiously, with the hapless Kyle still trapped inside it. "Get outta mah drink, ya striped liquor nicker! _Shoo! Scram!"_

"_Bzzz! - 'blub'-'blub', 'gasp!'-'blub!'"_ Kyle wailed, feeling himself being tossed around like a bobbing cork in the splashing rice wine. "'_Hic!' I can't get out, you stupid, psycho, drunkard –_ _'blub'!"_

Kitsune then angrily swung the bottle by its base in a vicious arc, sending Kyle and a goodly measure of her drink spraying across Motoko's room in a bubbling cloud of sweet _sake_. The centrifugal force and the wave of escaping liquor generated by the swinging bottle tossed the hapless Kyle back out through its open neck again and across the room almost to the hall doorway. Somehow recovering his equilibrium in mid air, the half-drowned hornet first pinballed himself between all three sides of the doorframe in a futile effort to get away, before finally wobbling off back out through the gap into the hallway like a buzzing yellow and black marble of jelly. The vast amount of strong _sake_ he had accidentally swallowed whilst trapped in the bottle was rapidly having an adverse effect of both his flying, and his already woozy mind.

"_And stay out, ya buzzing bandit!"_ came loudly from behind him, followed by the sound of the door slamming completely shut.

"_Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! You should've seen your face, Kitsune?"_

"_Shuddup, Kendo kook! That's not funny, dammit-all! Mah poor sake! It's all spilled now!"_

"_Yes, it was! And that was your fault! Ha, ha, ha, ha! Oh, Kami-sama, that was absolutely hilarious."_

"_Was not!"_

_Bzzz-_ _'hic!' Bzzz–'hoc!'_ "Yes, thish stuff shure iss tashtee–_'hic!' _Bzzzz!_"_ the inebriated Kyle droned happily to no one in particular as he spluttered through a series of jerky stop–starts through the air in his erratic and no longer really necessary escape attempt. _"Up, up and awa-a-ay-! 'Hic!'"_

BONK!

"OW!"–_'Hic!'_

After bouncing his befuddled head off the hallway ceiling, Kyle spiraled uncontrollably downwards and in through the open doorway of the next room along from the one he had just escaped from. As he corkscrewed into the huge open space beyond the entrance to Room 301, the intoxicated Kyle had just the presence of mind to notice with surprise that he now seemed to be safely outside this nightmarish building, although the tropical jungle that was spread out before him was like nothing he had ever before seen in Japan.

"What the F_-'hic?'_ Where the heck am I now?" _'Yawwwn!'_ "Oh, yeah, I gotta – _'hic!'_ – gotta get back to the hive…!"

Trying to beat his unresponsive wings even faster in a valiant effort to reach the safety of the top branches of a tree he dimly registered ahead of him, the sozzled _suzumebachi_ finally managed to gain some extra altitude through the hot and surprisingly steamy atmosphere surrounding him. Just as the woozy hornet felt he was finally getting somewhere, his wings suddenly gave up the ghost and cut out on him. The semi-conscious Kyle immediately fell out of the humid air, to belly flop down onto a palm frond, some fifteen feet above what appeared to be a hot pool. A subconscious reflex action upon impact caused him to grip tightly to the foliage with all six legs, and then he promptly dropped off into a liquor-induced sleep.

The swirly-eyed Kyle's last coherent thought before passing out, was:

_How in the heck did those two human females in the last room get together in that way, anyway? And…why…?_

'_Hic!'_

-:-:-:-:-:-

_Author's Note:_

_And if you do want to find out just how Kitsune and Motoko got together, then you're in 'M' rated luck. Be sure to read the special spin-off chapter of this story, titled, **'Love Hina: Flight of the Hornet - The Seduction'.**_

_I've posted it as a brand new story, and it's up right now._


	5. Chapter 5

_Heyo! Here it is - Chapter Five. Enjoy!_

-:-:-:-:-:-

**LOVE HINA: FLIGHT OF THE HORNET  
**_**CHAPTER FIVE**_

By Doctor-T and Major Mike Powell III

-:-:-:-:-:-

Half an hour went past, and in Kaolla Su's jungle room, Kyle the hornet was at last stirring once again. The sound of human voices and splashing water coming from somewhere below his aerial perch on the palm frond had penetrated through his drunken slumber, and finally succeeded in waking him up.

After shaking his still slightly dazed and sore head in an effort to clear the cobwebs from it, the confused Kyle stared around with astonishment at the huge, greenhouse-like, enclosed space that he had stumbled into. Then he apprehensively peered over the edge of the palm leaf that he had so fortuitously crash-landed upon, in an effort to spot just who or what it was that had woken him.

_There they are. Two more human females, at the far edge of that hot pool below me. And it looks like they have no idea that I'm in here with them yet. Good! Let's keep it that way!_

About ten meters away from the eavesdropping hornet, Shinobu Maehara let out a loud sigh as she lay back in the pleasantly warm water of the private hot pool that belonged to her best friend, Kaolla Su. The extremely pretty Tokyo University sophomore had been in a melancholy mood all day – indeed, for all of the last week, as well.

Like all of the other girls now resident at the Hinata Apartments, upon first finding out from Naru that she and Keitaro weren't in fact married after all, and that the bad tempered brunette had thrown him out on his ear, Shinobu had been secretly delighted that Naru had permanently given Keitaro the boot. Sure, she had also felt sorry for the now separated pair, in that they had been unable to make their short and tumultuous marriage work. But the now much more grown up and mature Shinobu certainly wasn't going to let her sympathy for her two older friends stand in her way of finally winning her beloved Sempai's heart for herself.

But Keitaro had disappeared after being evicted, and no one seemed to even have a clue as to where he had gone. Shinobu was distraught. If only she could find out where he was, she could go and comfort him! However, for a whole week, there had been no word from their missing landlord, at all.

Just as Shinobu was about to go out of her mind with worry, her badly missed Sempai had finally returned to the Hinata Apartments. Mutsumi had accompanied him there, and with a horrible, sinking feeling in her stomach, Shinobu had listened in disbelief to the pair publicly announce their love for each other to all of the residents.

Upon hearing the bad news - well, from her point of view, anyway - Shinobu's freshly blooming hopes and dreams had come crashing down upon her once again. Having missed her chance to win Keitaro's love for the second time, and like Motoko, having never been interested in pursuing any other guy but her Sempai, the twice-heartbroken nineteen-year-old had fallen into a bad case of depression at failing at her lifetime ambition, yet again.

After a week of lonely soul-searching, Shinobu had finally decided to pay a visit to her exotic Molmol friend for some badly needed cheering up and advice. So that Saturday afternoon after lunch, the beautiful blue-haired teen went for a walk up to Kaolla Su's room on the third floor of the apartment building to do just that.

Upon her arrival at Room 301 only about ten minutes ago, carrying a box of snacks that she had brought with her for them to eat, Shinobu had been happy to find that her always perky foreign friend was indeed there at the time. And since it was so hot, both indoors and out, the two gorgeous girls quickly decided that a refreshing bathe in the in-room hot pool was by far the most comfortable way for them to have their chat. So, after placing the food on a tray, which then went into Su's bench top oven to heat up, the very attractive pair had stripped off all of their clothes and done just that.

Quickly noticing that Shinobu was still looking depressed even after slipping into the tropical-vegetation-fringed hot pool with her, the resident Molmol princess decided that a heart-to-heart talk with her downcast best friend was long overdue, all right.

"Look, Shinobu," Su said earnestly, her light brown arms sweeping back and forth through the warm water as she talked, sending tiny ripples cascading off across her surprisingly large indoor pool. "You've told me a heap of times before that you didn't want any other man but Keitaro, right?" At Shinobu's nod, she added, "Well, it's exactly the same with me. Kei-Baby's great! But we both gotta accept the fact that we lost out on him once again, _darn it all."_

"I know that, Su," Shinobu replied, her now sizeable bare breasts bouncing gently in the wavelets, and her long, waist-length blue hair fanning out in the water behind her as she leant forward from the stone edge of the indoor _onsen_. "And you're right, of course. But it's just so hard for me to do that! I've loved Sempai ever since he first arrived here. And now, I feel just like I did when he married Naru three months ago – like my heart has been torn in two again."

"Yeah. I know just what you mean," Su soberly agreed. "I was so sure that Kei-baby would want to marry me when he found out that I was a princess, and that when he did, he would eventually become king of my country, I never bothered to come up with a Plan B. _Heh, heh_. I guess that I'm now paying the price for my lack of effort in trying to win him off Naru in the first place. Just like you are, too, eh, Shinobu?"

"Yes, Su, that's true." Shinobu tried to suppress a sniffle, not altogether too successfully. "When I was younger, I was always too afraid to just come out and confess my love to him. Now that I'm nineteen and more mature, I kick myself every day that I didn't! I hesitated for far too long, and Naru beat me to him. And now that Sempai's been taken from me for a second time by Mutsumi, this time for good, I'll bet, I really don't know what best to do with my life anymore."

Su looked with sympathy at her despondent best friend for a couple of seconds, a thoughtful look in her sea-green eyes. Then she came to her decision, and spoke up again.

"Shinobu?"

"Yes, Su?"

"Look, I have something to ask you. I know that I'm not good old Keitaro, but since there's no hope at all of either of us getting him now that he's hooked up for good with Mutsumi, I was hoping that you might want to…well, hang out with me? On a more – _um_ – intimate level than now, if you know what I mean?"

As Su's completely out of the blue request registered in her mind, Shinobu stared with surprise at her expectant-looking companion. Back when she had been thirteen years old, Su had been the one who had given the then very shy and retiring young cook her very first kiss. And even though Shinobu had been disappointed at the time that the intimate experience had come from her nearly one-year-older friend, and not her beloved Sempai, the thought had still remained in the back of her mind over the intervening years that the Molmol girl had treasured her enough to actually do it to her…

But, even with that shared secret moment between them, for her to start up a relationship with her best female friend-!

"_Um,_ Su. We're both girls, you know? I like you and all, but…well, we're both girls!"

"I know that, Shinobu. I'm a genius, remember? And why not?" Su persisted, the blonde, tanned Molmol beauty obviously meaning every word that she was now saying. "We've been best friends for years now, haven't we? We get on really well together, and most importantly, I've always loved you just as much as I love Keitaro. You do love me, too, don't you, Shinobu?"

"Ah…yes, you know that I do, Su. But-!"

"Well, there you go, then. And since neither one of us has anyone else that we're even remotely interested in, I can't think of a single good reason why we both can't at least give dating each other a try."

"I can think of several! For instance, what would both of our families, and our friends think about us doing that," the flustered Shinobu objected. "Wouldn't they think that we were a little - _um - _weird?"

"Truthfully, my family wouldn't care, one way or the other, Shinobu," Su candidly pointed out to her blue-haired, prospective lover. "Relationships like that are actually quite common on Molmol. And with regards to our friends, check _this_ out! I happen to already know for sure that both Kitsune and Kanako are bi, and also that my buddy, Motoko, secretly fancies not just everyone's favorite stud, Kei-Baby, but girls, as well. I know that last for a fact because I've slept with her several times in the past, and don't forget that Motoko's done it once before with Kanako, too."

"Um – you have…with Motoko? As in, you've done…_'it'?"_

"Yupsies! And we both enjoyed having sex with each other, too."

"Ah, _okaaay?_ And, well, I already knew that bit about Motoko and Kanako," the wide-eyed Shinobu started to say, her already pink cheeks now noticeably darkening into a deeper shade of red. "But wasn't that-?"

"_Kinda_. But wait, there's more!" Kaolla interrupted, now on a roll with her plan to bring long overdue happiness to them both. "As for the others, Ms. Haruka and Mr. Seta don't worry about things like that. And so when they find out, they'll both treat us exactly the same as they do now. Sarah will support us, no matter what we do. I dunno about Naru, but I suspect that she's now got far bigger things to worry about than us getting together. And as for Keitaro and Mutsumi, we both know that they'll merely look surprised and then give us their blessings. So there's nothing at all for you to worry about if you do agree to be with me."

"Is…that right? I have to confess that I already suspected you and Motoko of _- 'ahem!'_ – of having an affair before, so your admission about that being true hasn't come as any great surprise to me, Su," the blue-haired teen admitted. "But how on earth did you find out about the other girls – _um_ – sexual preferences?"

"_Nyahahahaha!_ Like I said, I'm a genius! If there's anything I want to know, I find it out. But anyway, what was your other objection to us dating each other, Shinobu?"

"Oh? Er, okay. L-let's say that it did work out between us? Even though I've missed out on Keitaro, I still want to get married at some later stage, Su. And we - you and I - couldn't possibly marry each other because it wouldn't be legal," Shinobu pointed out to her friend, still unable to look the other girl straight in the eye. "So, no matter how much we grew to love each other, we'd still be going nowhere."

"_Nyahahaha!_ Ya think so, Shinobu," Kaolla chuckled again, a knowing gleam in her green eyes. "Well, guess what? You're wrong about that! If our relationship _does _get to that stage, we _would_ be going somewhere, all right – straight to the marriage altar in Molmol! Us tying the knot with each other is perfectly legal back in my homeland. The marriage laws where I come from are a lot more liberal than here in Japan."

"You – you don't say," Shinobu mumbled, looking surprised at that unexpected revelation. "And I bet that I know what you're going to say next, too. Molmol same-sex marriages are recognized as legal here in Japan, right?"

"Bingo!" Su exclaimed. "See? There's no down side to this, at all!"

"Well, I still don't know…?" the fidgety Shinobu hedged, still trying to think of some reason why Su's idea couldn't possibly work, but failing badly at it. And she honestly couldn't deny that she _was_ attracted to her perky friend, but in _that_ sort of way…?

"Tell you what, why don't we just try going out with each other as a couple for a few weeks, first," Su offered. "No pressure at all, and either of us can opt out at any time. That way, we can both find out just how we feel about each other before making any long term plans together. What do you think of that idea, then?"

For a long couple of minutes, Shinobu just sat there, thinking the idea through. Upon first hearing from Su that she wanted to date her, the idea had seemed preposterous. But now, upon reflection…?

_I've always loved Sempai, first and foremost,_ Shinobu thought. _But, out of everyone else here, I love Su the most. She's always been my best friend, she does love me back, and now that I think about it, she is…very attractive to me, as well. And now that Keitaro is no longer available to me, what do I have to lose if I take Su up on her offer? Actually… nothing at all, have I? Su is right when she told me that our friends wouldn't mind us getting together. And I certainly need love in my life, right now, too…_

_Oh…for once in your life, Shinobu, be bold! Like Su asked me just before, why not?_

"Oh-okay, Su" Shinobu finally conceded, at last managing to look her optimistic-looking best friend directly in the eye. "This is a huge decision for me to make, but…I'm – I'm willing to give it a try, because I do like you…a lot. But this is just a trial relationship, remember," she hastened to add. "I'm feeling a little uncomfortable about the thought of dating a woman, even if it is you, so…so please let us take it really slow and gentle for a start, okay?"

"_Yay! Deal!"_ Su whooped, pouncing on the startled sophomore with a loud splash, and scooping her up out of the warm pool into her tanned arms. She then planted a long, lingering kiss directly on the now bright-red Shinobu's open mouth before the other girl could even think about voicing any objection.

"_Mmmmm!"_ The Molmol girl murmured, her mouth eagerly working on the smooth and soft lips of her new lover.

"_S-SU?"_ Shinobu gasped back, once her own mouth was free to talk again. "Not so fast!"

"What, ya didn't like it?" Su inquired with a grin. "Or are you complaining because I didn't use enough tongue?"

"N-no, it's not that," Shinobu replied, a nervous smile appearing on her red-cheeked face as she leant forward in the strong arms of her brand new girlfriend. "You just took me by surprise, that's all. I said let's just take it slow at first, okay? Slow and gentle, like this-"

Then her own soft lips pasted themselves gently back over those of the pleasantly surprised Molmol girl, and the two nude Tokyo U students slowly sank back down into the warm waters of the pool again, locked tightly breast-to-breast in each other's arms.

"_Holy crap,"_ the sweating Kyle told to himself from his position on the palm leaf. "What is this, an adult movie studio, or a girls-only boarding school, or something? There's more hot action going on in this place than in the Hinata Love Hotel down on the riverbank!"

DING!

"Oh, Su," Shinobu gasped, having heard the sound of the oven timer going off. "Hold on a second! The special treat that I was cooking for us is ready, right now. I'll just go and get it out of your bench oven."

"Sure, Shinobu," Su agreed, lounging back against a flat rock at the edge of her jungle pool as Shinobu, not even bothering to cover her nude body with a towel first, jumped out of the steaming water and hurried off to collect their food. "Hey? What did you say this snack you cooked was called, again?"

"Hold on a second. Ah, yes, it's done nicely." Switching off the oven, Shinobu first donned a pair of oven mittens, and then opened the door and carefully pulled out a tray of small, oval shaped, and to the watching Kyle, _very_ familiar shapes.

"This is a treat that the mountain villagers in Japan eat all of the time," Shinobu told her lip-licking friend as she returned to the pool with the hot tray of goodies. It's called 'deep fried hornet', and not only are they delicious, they're a good source of protein, too!"

"_De-deep fried hornet snacks?" _Kyle squawked out, nearly falling off his perch with shock. A chill raced through his segmented body, and all of a sudden this strange, forested room wasn't so tropical in temperature, after all. _"I'm getting the hell outta here!"_

"Yay!" Su cried out, a large pair of chopsticks appearing as if by magic in her hands. "Lemme at 'em!"

"Be careful, Kaolla, they're hot," Shinobu laughed, placing the tray down next to her hungry-looking new girlfriend, and then slipping back into the pool next to her. "You'd best let them cool off a little, first?"

On the subject of cool, Kyle had totally lost his. Racing in panicky flight like a bullet for what he thought was the nearest window, he realized just a second too late that it was, in fact, a mirror high up on a top shelf of a sidewall of the room. Unable to brake to a full stop in time, the unlucky _suzumebachi_ bounced of its unyielding surface, to plummet like a stone down into an open-topped glass box on the tabletop below, landing with a 'plop' on some soft, white, fluffy substance.

"_Ow-Wowtch!"_ he buzzed, shaking his head as he wobbled back up onto his six feet. "That was dumb! What am I, a human-? EEEEK!"

The momentarily dazed hornet had just that second noticed exactly what was surrounding him. Skewered on pins standing up from the cotton wool lined foam in the rectangular glass box, were a wide variety of preserved and labeled insect specimens, ranging in size from large butterflies, dragonflies and cicadas, down to much smaller grasshoppers, bees and flies. But the exhibit that had caught and held the horrified Kyle's full and undivided attention was a dried specimen of another Giant Hornet. Even worse, this particular one had a _very_ familiar face.

"_Oh, shit!_ It's my long lost buddy, Zzzpthzzith! (Which roughly translates in English to Fred). So _that's_ what happened to you? _Waah-haah-haaah! What is this, a nightmare?"_

The appalled _suzumebachi_ whirred back up into the air again, intending to break all kinds of speed records with his departure from this house of horrors. But, unfortunately for him, he wasn't going to be able to get out of trouble quite that easily. For, high on a shelf above him, a certain, now rather hungry flying turtle had spotted his unplanned fall. And Tama-chan was in the mood for a tasty hornet _entrée_ before dinner.

The Asian giant hornet has no natural enemies in mainland Japan, apart from people, that is. Unfortunately for Kyle, Tama-chan's particular turtle species wasn't actually from mainland Japan. The _Onsen Tamago_ was native to Okinawa and its surrounding islands, and they were partial to the odd insect as part of their natural diet. To Kyle's further misfortune, wasps and hornets were integral parts of that menu. And Tama-chan's species also had the added – and quite unfair, from Kyle's point of view - advantage of being immune to the hornet's stinger venom.

Letting out the hornet equivalent of "EEEEK!" again as he spotted the swooping turtle, the freaked-out wasp headed for the hills!

Asian giant hornets like Kyle weren't exactly noted for their speed, although they were capable of speeds of up to forty kilometers an hour if necessary. But they could turn on a right-angled dime, and that is what saved Kyle from being a tasty, pre-dinner snack, right then-and-there. Ducking under Tama-chan's mouth as it snapped shut, the sweating Kyle made a beeline (so to speak) for the nearest exit, the flying turtle hot on his trail!

(Cut to chase sequence, the accompanying music: the orchestral, _'Flight Of The Bumblebee',_ by Rimsky Korsakov).

Down several hallways, down a staircase, through several open doors, back up and then down the staircase again, through another open door, Kyle the hornet flew for his life. And always Tama-chan was right behind him, unable as yet to gain any ground on the fleeing _suzumebachi_, but not losing any, either.

_Wait! I remember from before that there's an open doorway coming up just around that bend ahead of me_, Kyle realized as he hurtled back up the hallway he had previously come down only seconds before._ If I can just duck inside it before that flying turtle can make it around the bend, too, I can throw it off my trail!_

Inside the room in question, a skinny, flat-chested teenage girl was at that very moment sitting at a study desk, engrossed with reading what looked to be some sort of a sex guide on the screen of her laptop computer.

_Darn it all! I don't look even the slightest bit like a model, or an idol, or a big-breasted centerfold, like all of the other much more fortunate girls living here, do. So if I'm going to have a hope of even getting any sort of a boyfriend at all, let alone a cool one like Keitaro Urashima, I'm going to have to learn all that I can about how to attract and please boys, _Ema Maeda was at that very moment firmly telling herself as she stared with wide eyes at the erotic 'how-to' images on her LCD screen. _And that includes studying up on how to satisfy them with - um? S-sex._

_Eeeep! So th-that's how it's done? Gosh, could I really do something like that? Even for love…?_

'BLUSH!'

_C-calm down, Ema! You don't actually have to _do_ any of this stuff just yet – you only have to _know _how to do it,_ the sweat-dropping, red-faced teen hurriedly reminded herself as she uncomfortably peered at the erotic and very graphic pictures through her steamed up glasses._ For when you're ready – and _only_ when you're ready…!_

Just then, there came a most unusual and unexpected interruption to the awkward and unskilled fifteen-year-old's atypically erotic, extracurricular studies.

_Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-bonk!_

"…Huh? What was that? Did something just fly into my room," the startled girl asked out loud, momentarily looking up from her laptop to gaze with puzzlement around her lodgings.

"Hmmm? Well, I can't see anything in here, now. It could have been just my imagination, I guess? Ah, well, back to the-_ooh!_ Why on earth would they want to do it _that_ way, I wonder-?"

As Ema returned her undivided attention back to her computer screen, Kyle, now hiding in the top left-side corner of the room's still empty closet, breathed out a long and ragged sigh of relief at having at long last escaped from the flying turtle, and also the scrutiny of the occupant of the room he was hiding in. A sigh that lasted all of a second-and-a-half – right up until he discovered that there was something else lurking in the wardrobe with him.

Clinging with sucker-toed feet to the left inside wall of the shadowy closet, a strange-looking and very large lizard was staring at him with one swirly, independently rotating eye…

Then a bulbous tongue flicked out like lightning, missing Kyle's tensed-up body by a hairsbreadth!

"_Ch-chameleon! Waaaah!"_

_Bzzzz-bonk! Bzzzz-bonk! Bzzzz-bonk!_

"What on earth is that loud buzzing and banging noise, Leon?" the skinny girl called out, staring back over her right shoulder at the commotion behind her. Then Ema's eyes lit up and her mouth dropped open with astonishment as she spotted Kyle caroming off the walls and ceiling of her closet like a yellow and black marble, desperately searching for a way out of his predicament that didn't involve him passing within striking distance of the lethal sticky tongue of her most unusual pet.

"Wow! What a _huge_ hornet! I should catch it, and you can have it for dinner tonight, Leon," the fifteen-year-old Tokyo U hopeful exclaimed, her right hand grasping for the handle of her butterfly net as she jumped up from her study desk in eager anticipation of the hunt. "Hop back a bit, and I'll get it for you!"

As the excited teen's mesh net swished past alarmingly close to his hurtling body, Kyle saw his chance to vamoose. Ducking between the girl's right arm and her body, the freaked-out _suzumebachi_ used her as a shield between himself and the highly dangerous insect eater on the opposing wall.

"Darn it, it's getting away! Sorry, Leon, I blew it."

"_What in the hell is a chameleon doing here in this place?"_ Kyle yelled out as he fled out of the room like a flying sweat ball. "This is Japan, not Madagascar! What am I – _cursed?"_

Unfortunately for Kyle, as he bolted back into the hallway, he flew straight into the path of Tama-chan, whom had circled back to search for him. Letting out another squawk at the most unwelcome sight of his flying nemesis, the agitated hornet pulled off a high-gee, ninety-degree 'L' turn in mid-air and powered off down the corridor once more, this time directly towards the lobby and reception.

_"WAAAAH! I'M CURSED!"_

As he whizzed like a black and yellow bullet along the labyrinth of hallways, Tama-chan swooping and spiralling along in his wake, Kyle desperately searched for some narrow gap or opening that he could thread at high speed, an escape hole small enough that his relentless pursuer couldn't fit through.

And at last, in the entrance hall, he found one. Squeezing through the tiny space between the slightly ajar, left-side main door and its closed twin, Kyle then sped off across the courtyard and down the stone staircase, intending to put as much distance between himself and the house of horrors behind him as he possibly could.

It was still a scorcher of a day out here under the blazing late afternoon sun, Kyle realized as he continued his headlong flight. But this was still nowhere near as hot as it had been for him inside the man-made mountain he had just escaped from – in more ways than one!

Once he had reached the base of the stone staircase without any further sign of pursuit by the flying turtle, such was his relief at having seemingly gotten clean away, Kyle forgot his usual caution and continued his rapid retreat out onto the two-way road.

"_Phew! Made it,"_ he panted, doing another right-angled turn and speeding off down the long ribbon of tarmac, at a height of less than two meters above its smooth, hot surface. "That was a close one! No, two! No – _three!"_

Now that he was safe once again, the giant hornet's mind quickly turned to thoughts of revenge on the human inhabitants of the mountainous building he had just escaped from, for what they had done to his fellow hornets, specifically his buddy, Zzzpthzzith. So obsessed did Kyle then become with plotting the downfall of the evil giants within their artificial, wooden mountain, he instinctively continued to drone off on autopilot down the center of the right-side lane of the road, without sparing even a thought as to the perils of doing so.

"This den of iniquity needs to be destroyed," Kyle buzzed out angrily in Hornetese as he sped around a sharp bend in the road, a few hundred meters from where he had first flown onto it. "I'll summon reinforcements from every hornet colony for kilometers around, and then we'll all go back there and-!"

And, unfortunately for Kyle, that was when his plan for revenge came to a sudden, sticky and permanent end.

-:-:-:-:-:-

At the exact same time as the panicky Kyle was fleeing from the Hinata Apartments, Noriyasu Seta was driving in his van up the very same road that the hornet had just turned onto. The lanky archeologist was on his way to pay that selfsame place a quick visit.

It was also a surprise visit. In more ways than one. For Seta had with him a special present for a certain pair of recently married friends. A gift that he was absolutely positive that they would be more than delighted to receive from him.

"Ah-heh-heh! I can't wait to see the smile on the part-timer's face when I tell him I found his Registration of Marriage Form in the back of my van, and that I've just filed it for him at the Registry office," Seta chuckled out loud as he actually speeded up, instead of slowing down, to take the corner he could see coming up ahead of him. "And it was even more lucky for Keitaro and Naru that when the municipal office clerks issued their _Kon-in-Todoki_ marriage form, they accidentally postdated it to one whole month _after_ their wedding actually took place! I'm sure that those kids will be over the moon that their marriage really _is_ a legal one, now."

"Hmmm? I wonder if the happy couple have even realized yet that they didn't file the - _yikes?"_

'_Ka-splatch!'_

"Damn!" Seta remarked, staring at the large, green splatter spot on his windshield, which was all that remained of a huge, unwary hornet that had blundered directly into the path of his hurtling van. "Right in the center of my vision, too. For some strange reason they always seem to hit right there, never in a spot that won't affect your driving. I best switch on the wipers – _whaow?"_

Seta had only been distracted from his driving for a couple of seconds, but that was all the time that it took for disaster to strike – as it so often did when he was behind the wheel.

As his battered van smashed through the roadside barrier on the corner and sailed off into the air, the startled archaeologist only had one thing to say about this latest in a long line of sticky situations that he now found himself in.

"Well, this sure sucks, doesn't it? It looks like I might not be delivering the good news to Keitaro and Naru, after all!"

-:-:-:-:-:-

**THE END**

-:-:-:-:-:-

_Author's Note:_

_If you do want to find out just how Kitsune and Motoko got together last chapter, then you're in 'M' rated luck. Be sure to read the special one-shot, spin-off story, titled, **'Love Hina: Flight of the Hornet - The Seduction'. **It's up right now._

_NEXT WEEK:_

_Uh-oh! It looks like Keitaro and Naru really _are_ still married, doesn't it? So what happens next?_

_Be sure to catch the follow on story to this one, titled, **'Love Hina: Flight of the Hornet - The Aftermath'. **I'll post the first chapter of this _definitely_'M' rated, five-chapter story on my next update._


End file.
